Four approaches that resonate with me the most
So, what my teaching philosophy looks like? In a Venn diagram below, you can see four main components that I included in my teaching philosophy.
Sense-making lesson plans
In MAT program I learned a lot, but I think the most important lesson for me was how to make lesson plans in a way that they make sense to my students. And lesson plans make sense when they are related and connected to student’s live and other subject areas as well. And by student's life, I mean his life in and outside the school, his family, and his community. I want my students feel belonged to the classroom through our relationships and lesson plans.
“And by student's life, I mean his life in and outside the school, his family, and his community".
Culturally sustaining pedagogy
Another great learning for me was the role of culture in my learning and understanding. As a newcomer to the United States, I learned a lot of new things. And now I know, how culture shaped my learning when I was a child and how it is still a significant part of me and my everyday learning.
I feel that culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris, 2012) allows me to be a better teacher to my students as it acknowledges their cultures and identities too. It will also help me to differentiate the lesson plans to build connections and help students to learn in comprehensive way as they see a representation of their cultures in classroom environment and lessons they learn.
Strong relationships with students and their families
I cannot imagine teaching without building strong relationships with my students and their families. In MAT program I learned how teacher should treat students as a whole. My students will bring different funds of knowledge (Moll et el., 1992) in my classroom, and I want to learn all of them. Naturally, I am a very good observer and learner. I am always open to every opportunity to learn something new. And learning about my students and their families are foundation for my teaching strategies in the classroom.
“My students will bring different funds of knowledge in my classroom, and I want to learn all of them".
Translanguaging classroom
The topic of my capstone project was Supporting bilingualism in the elementary classroom through linguistically responsive teaching (Rao and Morales, 2015) and translanguaging pedagogy (Garsia et el., 2017). As a bilingual person, I use English and Russian interchangeably. For me, it is hard to imagine to be constrained by using one of the languages in the appropriate time only. So, as a future teacher, I do not support the idea of separating languages in the classroom. The translanguaging classroom encourages emergent bilinguals to use all their language repertoires as language is a foundation for their learning. So, restricting students by using one language only, we are limiting their learning as well.
“The translanguaging classroom encourages emergent bilinguals to use all their language repertoires as language is a foundation for their learning".
These four components do not mean that I will emphasize only them in my teaching. There are so many other helpful tools and strategies. And I will share more details and thoughts in my other posts on this website.
García, O., Johnson, S. I., & Seltzer, K. (2017). The Translanguaging classroom: Leveraging student bilingualism for learning. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon.
Moll, L., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into Practice, 31(2), 132–141.
Paris, D. (2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice.Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93–97.
Rao, B and Morales, Z. (2015). Creating a Climate for Linguistically Responsive Instruction: The Case for Additive Models, Mid-Western Educational Researcher, v.27, n.4, p. 296-316
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