In discussing my personal philosophy of teaching I will try to put into words my developing personal philosophy of teaching. I add the word “developing” because I believe that as a novice teacher, I am beginning to realize my own pre-existing beliefs and values regarding education and teaching as I formally acquire the theoretical and pedagogical foundations of the teaching profession itself. Each new course, reading, and discussion has potential to influence my philosophy of teaching. Attending some seminars is given to me as a teacher to develop my teaching practices inside the classroom. It is also helped me to be a good teacher to my students. And also pursuing my study in a Graduate Studies has also given me to be developing professional teachers. In a very start it so hard to my part as a teacher to continue my professional development by enrolling in a Master of Arts in Education, because its adding to me some problem that I will encounter as a teacher, like less of time for rest, because instead to take my weekend for myself and to my family I need to go to Bataan Peninsula State University to attend my Saturday class in Graduate Studies. But those hindrances in developing my career as a teacher will be eliminated. Because pursuing my professional growth as a teacher will be benefited also to my students by sharing more knowledge that sometimes cannot be found in a textbook that I use in my classroom discussion. An idea that mostly I share to my students, are those ideas of what I learned from the Graduate Studies.

Before beginning my discussion about my own personal philosophy of teaching, I think it is important to think about my own schooling as a child and how that has shaped my views. Therefore, first I will reflect on my public school experience from primary through secondary school. I have good and bad or sad memories in my elementary education. I encounter some teachers who are very strict inside the classroom. They are very strictly in given punishment for those disobedient students. Some of them are given their students a corporal punishment that make the students to behave and be a good to the teacher. But today corporal punishment was strictly not implements in school because of the rights of the child are very much prioritising by our government that will cause the students to not respect the teachers. As a teacher I’m not personally give a corporal punishment to those disobedient students. There are other ways that teachers can gain their students’ respect and keep their classrooms orderly. I think that when teachers genuinely care for their students, it shows in the way they teach and in the time they devote to their students. This kind of caring nature is bound to positively affect their students. I also experience during my elementary days are those teachers who are very lazy to teach the students especially those teachers who are old and waiting their years of retirements. Those teachers are always sitting while their discussing the lessons and sometimes instead of discussing the lessons they are doing by copying the lesson in their lesson plan and they let the students learned by their own. I remember when I was in grade six, one of my classmates shouted “magsusulat nanaman ubos na ang pahina ng notebook ko” and when we heard this words all of my classmates laugh that make my teachers angry and all of us received a corporal punishment by standing inside the classroom for one hour. If these teaching practices will apply today I think it is very tradionally, the students today are very key observer and most of they are getting boring if the teacher will talk for the whole one hour in teaching. In contrast to my perceptions of traditionalism, I also am aware that I lean towards modern approaches. Since my elementary school seemed to experiment with different teaching approaches and course offerings, I have always looked forward to that aspect in schooling, most of the time with disappointment. However, I know that schooling can be very positive because of my good experiences early on in a good school.

 I have pretty good memories of my education during the secondary education. However, what I remember most about in high school isn’t my education per se, but rather the social contacts I made in school. I meet my classmates came from different barangay or town here in Abucay and they are also have different personality or characteristics but still I meet my friends during the mu high school days in a public school. In high school I also experience a teachers who are very strict but I’m glad the I survived my high school days very enjoyable with a good and sometimes has bad experience. From those experience in my secondary education the implications to my teaching from this period of my schooling, perhaps the most important development that has influenced many aspects of my life since then, including teaching, was contact with different students. In high school I had some great experiences with different students, so I know a little about their struggles. I know somewhat about how they feel trying to be accepted in a new place since I moved around a great deal as a kid also and had to gain acceptance in each new community. I believe that I can be more open, patient and understanding as a teacher to my students due to my own experiences as a child in school. Today I’m now a high school teacher I very much aware to my students because I know that they came from different kind of families, school so therefore they have a different personality and attitudes. So as a teacher I need to learned their differences and accept them. I believe that my high school observations, coupled with my feelings that teaching should be one of society’s most valued professions, have influenced me a great deal to enter the teaching field. As I have gotten older, I have seen that there is a necessity for quality education. There is a need for people to challenge social attitudes and to work for positive change, especially with regards to education. To a large extent, my former negative attitudes towards schooling have provided some of the inspiration for me to enter the teaching field. Before I made the decision to teach and began to pursue that goal, I had never considered the thought that the act of teaching in and of itself is shrouded in theory. I had thought that theory in education was reserved exclusively for subjects such as astronomy, biology, psychology, and mathematics. In my own personal philosophy of teaching, I believe that it is important to be consciously aware of the theory behind what I teach and the way that I teach. It is empowering to understand the theories associated with my field and to be able to articulate my opinions professionally. Also, I think that it is necessary to be aware of the complex interplay that exists between teaching, learning, and curricular theories in actual classroom practice. I never know that as a teacher we have different philosophy in life that we apply in our profession and especially in our classroom discussion. As a teacher I consider myself as a role model to my students and to inspired them that every day they are in school is very important because at the end it will benefits them in their future.

 In the words of legendary pianist, Menahem Pressler:  “Inspiration is the one thing that cannot be ordered:  it must comprise us” (2005).  For me, both learning and teaching are the primary avenues to inspiration.  That is, learning and teaching enable us to become better than we think we have the potential to be.  I am personally driven by a strong belief that by improving opportunities for education, we have the possibility to transform human existence.  Moreover, I find myself increasingly fascinated by the multiple ways in which other people add meaning to our lives.  Teachers, especially, are in a privileged position to stimulate meaning in peoples’ lives by their intense involvement with the shaping of minds.

As an educator, I think I am most effective at transforming my students’ possibilities when I come to know their individual points of view, listen closely to their aspirations and expand their concepts of their own possibilities.  Then I focus all my effort on helping them to achieve—even exceed—their goals. I know that I help my students move to higher levels of achievement primarily through honesty and a commitment to excellence, combined with the necessary technical roadmaps (research, writing and critical thinking skills development through practice and constructive feedback).  I try to inspire them to take possession of their own lives by intensively preparing them for a lifelong journey of self development.  I teach my students that success is crafted from incremental accomplishments—from seemingly minor improvements—that ultimately transform our own lives, change institutions and impact the lives of others.  I want my students to know that success is an internal state of mind that is not externally conferred.  Not only is my practice of teaching informed by my theory and philosophy, but it is profoundly influenced by my background and who I have become, sharing my own experience during my school days in high school, what kind of my family status that I have before that make me to inspired to study hard and to achieved my dreams to help my family to raising up from the unluckly status. I also remind them that whatever happened in their life and all the problem that they encounter ever day make them to inspired to continue their dreams and just to believed that God has a very special planned for them to their life’s. So let them inspired that they don’t need to gived up and stopped dreaming because those problem that they have are preparation to their life like what the tagalong saying that “kapag my tiyaga may nilaga”. And always remember that God are always in their besides just call Him every day to give thanks for all the blessings that they freceived and say sorry for those wrong action that they did.

So as a teacher I also believed that we are a living Heroes’ not only in our country but also in the eyes of our students. That every day we are a soldier in a war of learning and knowledge inside the classroom and encourage our students to be an eager to learned ad inspired them to go in school every school day. Be with them in times that they need us. As a teacher don’t let us to be our students in times of lesson discussion but also be them during the time that they need us. Be a teacher in every ways. Be a parent that they feel them acceptance that some of our students are not experience of accepting by their parents. And be friends that they need in good and bad times in their life’s.

 In wrapping up my personal philosophy of teaching, I would like to say that I have tried to include some of my attitudes, beliefs, and feelings in an organized manner regarding teaching and learning from the micro-level of the individual and the classroom to the macro-level of society. While not entirely comprehensive, I feel that this attempt to make explicit my teaching philosophy is, for the time being, complete. As mentioned in my introduction, since my philosophy is currently undergoing intense development, I would consider this paper a “work in progress” awaiting additional experience, insight, and theory for future development also. Whatever philosophy that I apply in my ever day routine as a classroom teacher, I’m just always remember that in my every things that I do whether it’s good or bad these will remain in the mind of my students. Therefore as a teacher we should always watch our action and words in front of our students. Be inspired them as a role model in learning and action so that we produce a good students and a good citizens of our country to help in economical progress.

By: Jayson Suarez Castro | Teacher I | Bonifacio Camacho National High School | Abucay, Bataan