My Personal Philosophy

            When I was first hired as a kindergarten teacher, my principal mentioned a phrase that impacted every choice I made in the classroom: with purpose, on purpose. I believe that every choice I make as an educator should reflect my reason for choosing this career in the first place. I do what I do with purpose, to show every student love and support while guiding them to success. I also strive to be intentional when incorporating things into my classroom and lessons. I want the lessons and activities that I provide to serve a purpose toward my students’ educational goals. This takes more focus and planning than simply choosing an activity that covers a standard, but I hope that in doing so, I create an environment that allows my students to foster a love for learning, rather than just becoming good at taking tests and completing tasks. This is especially relevant in the integration of technology.

            Integrating technology in classrooms is no longer optional. Technology is not just a skill that our students will need to be successful in school, but also in their daily lives and when it comes time to begin their careers. In the world we live in, with education and technology rapidly changing, it is our job to ensure that our students can follow suit. This can be particularly uncomfortable when realizing that I am unfamiliar with something that can benefit my students. Romans 2:21 poses the question, “you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?” This encourages me to step out of my comfort zone while lesson planning and broaden the horizon of possibilities I provide my students. Teachers are lifelong learners, and it is up to me to teach myself what I want my students to know. I believe that it is okay to introduce a tool that I have not yet mastered and allow my students to become even more comfortable using it than I am. If I want to engage students in this twenty-first century world and lead them to success in their future, I need to be willing to grow and change alongside technology and education.

            Providing students with opportunities to teach their peers and instructors is powerful and often leads to deeper understanding of their topic. I have tried to accumulate plenty of safe technological tools and resources to share with my students based on their individual interests and learning needs. In an article I read about blended learning, a section about collaborative learning read, “after building a resource library based on common need areas, a teacher can expand it to address needs that come up less frequently, and advise individual students or groups about these helpful resources” (McCarthy, 2018). While it is nearly impossible for me to utilize and understand all of these tools myself, I can allow my students to use them and teach me and their peers what they have discovered. In Galatians 6:6, Paul says, “Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.” It is okay to encourage a student to explore something new and give them the ability to provide feedback and teach others. This gives them ownership over their learning and helps me better plan to use these tools in the future.

Different apps and technological tools can provide skills and differentiation in a way that I cannot achieve in the classroom environment. I try to utilize technology that will teach my students something or provide them with an experience better than I can. Encouraging them to utilize technology gives them power in their learning to demonstrate their knowledge in their own way. In an article about the use of technology specifically in kindergarten classes, a teacher shares that when students use technology to write and present information, “revision naturally happens because they do not like the way it sounds or they do not believe the image matches the word they wrote. It is almost magical when students see themselves as real writers for an authentic audience and see that there is a true purpose behind their writing” (Suomi, 2010). While my young students may not see a need to proofread or revise their writing journal entries, they constantly play back their Wixie presentations to make sure that everything sounds right and looks the way they want it to. In their eyes, posting their completed work for the class to see is important and they want to get their point across accurately. These tools allow my students to present their knowledge in so many ways, it allows me to see talents and strengths that I never would have known they had using pencil and paper.

In Psalm 32:8, David says, “I will instruct you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.” We teach children in the way they should go. We set them up for successes in their future. I do not want to teach my students to conform to my comfort level of technology use. I want to provide resources and facilitate learning that will follow them through their educational career, and further into their lifetime. By providing vast resources and tools that allow for more than one correct way to present knowledge, we support their individualized needs and set them up to succeed in their own unique ways.

References

McCarthy, J. (2018, September 24). Tech integration in blended learning: Teachers can deepen          student learning by making the most of classroom technology. Edutopia.             https://www.edutopia.org/article/tech-integration-blended-learning

Suomi, D. (2010, August 05). Technology and kindergarten: Is it possible? The Educator          Innovator. https://thecurrent.educatorinnovator.org/resource/technology-and-kindergarten-is-it-possible