Pedagogy is essentially an educator’s “approach to teaching” (Perrone, 71). When an educator is working to figure out how to go about doing things within the classroom, from making the curriculum to creating a certain kind of classroom environment, the educator draws from their “philosophical grounding” of their ideas about education, learning, and teaching (Perrone, 71). “How we think about teaching, the approaches we take, ultimately grows from our thinking about purpose” (Peronne, 71). So our purpose is our pedagogy. This belief about pedagogy is present throughout the other sections and throughout the continuing sections because they all reflect on my specific beliefs about teaching and learning that I reflected on in the “Pedagogy Philosophy” tab. As such, the choices I make and the reasoning that I use for every choice in the classroom is based around the lens of education as a way to move toward liberation, in a way that is very similar to Freire (See Education as Liberation).

 

As an educator, I hope to be one that is intentional about my thoughts, actions, and practices in the classroom. While this may not be something that feels natural in the beginning, I would like to be able to make decisions that I know are useful and meaningful for students rather than “going with the flow of things” as I do in other areas of my life. Shaping young minds is incredibly important, and as such should be done so in an intentional way, because these minds will shape our futures and our journey toward collective liberation. In addition to this, I hope to be that teacher that keeps it real with their students and allows students to feel comfortable sharing space with, while also staying true to my core value and beliefs.

 

With this in mind, I hope to be very involved with my students, their parents, and their community. While for me this doesn’t mean utilizing anthropological immersement into individual students lives, this does mean creating a classroom culture that allows students to feel comfortable sharing their needs, hopes, problems, and successes. This means actively cultivating a culture of understanding, empathy, and respect in the classroom, which includes utilizing a system of rewards and privileges rather than a discipline model that focuses on punitive punishments. I also acknowledge that parents aren’t always available to be directly involved in their child’s education, but want to be able to provide an accurate representation of how their child is doing if need be. In terms of everything else related to the classroom, I hope to be an avid planner for different situations and be flexible to change as the needs or desires of the students or the evolving world change. This means keeping updated about the world around us and the communities around us in order to be intentional about what to students should be learning in the classroom and taking away in the long term.

 

In these following sections, I will attempt to address the complex ways in which teachers must navigate their roles in the classroom through creating a respectful and productive classroom environment, thinking critically about technology in the classroom, addressing the specific needs of differentiation in the classroom, and juggling the expectations and intentions of fair and meaningful assessment and evaluations. All of these topics come together to play a large role in how I, as an educator, can be intentional in engaging students in the ways that are important to them, while also balancing the expectations of outside factors like standards, standardized testing, and societal pressures. While each section contains its own share of complex issues and debates, each section will attempt to find an area of nuance that balances the expectations of society and schooling with the needs of young minds.