Comments on: Skeletal form of my new Teaching Statement

By: elementaryteacher

elementaryteacher — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:22:44 +0000

Sorry, somehow I saw your other post (where I left my long comments) and didn’t see this one.

This is MUCH improved, but still needs some cutting.

Cut out everything before “My calling in life is to be a teacher…..” Why? Because this is a statement of YOUR philosophy, NOT White Spirit, NOT C.S. Lewis.

In number 4, reword MUCH shorter–ALL points into ONE clear sentence.

In 5, keep point b (expanding it slightly) and cutting out all other parts of 5. Get it into ONE clear sentence.

Eliminate 6, while true, it is redundant.

You’ve made excellent progress here. Tighten it up more. If I were a student, this statement would make me WANT to come to your class (unlike the long, more wordy, previous version).

Eileen
Dedicated Elementary Teacher Overseas (in the Middle East)
elementaryteacher.wordpress.com

By: Updated Teaching Statement « Casting Out Nines

Updated Teaching Statement « Casting Out Nines — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:12:36 +0000

[...] July 2008 · No Comments Some time ago, I posted a very skeletal outline of a new Statement of Teaching Philosophy and got some good feedback. After struggling to write something that doesn’t sound like it [...]

By: Observation « Casting Out Nines

Observation « Casting Out Nines — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:03:23 +0000

[...] 2001 (when I was searching for my current job), 2002, and 2003 and then comparing them with the new and improved one. I’m noticing that, back in 2001-2003, my teaching “philosophy” was more of a [...]

By: Robert

Robert — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:11:54 +0000

@virusdoc – Regarding family life, I guess I summed it up by saying I want students to see that I am a “complete person”. It’s very easy for students to objectify college professors or to see them ONLY as college professors, and not people with real-life concerns and responsibilities and things that make them happy, and they get the sense that the life of the mind is for people who forego family, friends, and so on to do nothing but learn all the time. I want to show students that being committed to learning and having a life are not mutually exclusive.

And I think students are more likely to learn from you if you appear to be a normal person in most respects.

By: virusdoc

virusdoc — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 21:31:55 +0000

Coming out of my first semester teaching, I’ve been thinking a lot about my own philosophy of teaching, so I enjoyed reading this. Thanks for sharing. I had a few observations that I think might help you tighten the next draft:

#1 and #6 seem internally redundant. Since #6 has more content, I would recommend deleting #1.

The use of the conditional “if” in #3 makes it sound like your “availability, flexibility, and willingness to help” are determined by the attitude of the students, and I suspect that’s not true. Deleting the conditional phrase fixes this, but you may wish to state your expectations of your students in a separate precept.

#4b: “well conceived” is redundant. That’s the only way to get an “organized, effective” learning experience.

#5b. The phrase “held in the clear and made accessible” is vague. Do you mean simply that these discussions should be public and publicized?

#5c. What specifically do you think is the educational advantage of making your family life visible to students? I ask because I feel the same way about personal transparency, but so far my family life hasn’t seemed relevant to my teaching.