Contact+Information

 **James Burg Elementary School

Ms. Michelle Sprinkle (4th grade)

Room 234

Availability: Call for meeting times (after school hours)

Cell phone number: 847-392-4565

Office phone: 842-334-6231

E-mail: mlsprin@ilstu.edu**


 * My Educational Philosophy **

In order for someone to be a successful teacher and take pride in their career in the education field there are many important virtues ones must explore and reflect upon. The elements I feel that are most important to my personal philosophy is the sensitivity toward the varieties of individual and cultural diversity, being able to understand of what affects learning and of appropriate teaching strategies, and having an interest in and an ability to seek out informational, technological and collegial resources. Each of these virtues will be discussed in further detail and will help me to grow and improve my method of instruction when I have my own classroom. The moral virtue that I feel is the most important is having sensitivity toward the varieties of individual and cultural diversity. In order to be a successful teacher in a classroom they must accomplish certain tasks for their students. Being aware of each student’s cultural background is a key concept to understanding the best way for them to learn the material that’s being taught. All lesson plans should involve each student culturally and contain fair opportunities for all children to speak and learn equally. The teacher’s duty is to fulfill the needs of their students and to make them feel comfortable within the classroom community and also be able to relate and connect each topic in their own personal way.

Understanding of what affects learning and of appropriate teaching strategies, is an intellectual virtue I will try to accomplish to the best of my ability. I feel this is a significant virtue for every teacher because if the teacher doesn’t know the possible obstacles they will be facing throughout the learning process of their students then they will not be doing their job accurately. When I have my own students I will observe and learn as much as I can about each student to figure out the learning strategy that works best for them. Some students have certain learning disabilities that may affect how they learn or retrieve information, which is a major difficulty that may require accommodations to help that student concentrate and be more motivated to learn. Being able to identify the issues affecting each child’s learning will benefit me greatly to learn how I can change the way I’m teaching. Some of the factors I will take into consideration with my own students will be cultural background, learning disabilities, other learning impairments, and family life.

The second intellectual virtue I’m going to consider is taking interest in and an ability to seek out informational, technological, and collegial resources. I think it is crucial to take the time and effort to research any kind of information that will help me in my own classroom, whether it’s learning different teaching strategies or learning more about a specific subject to be able to answer my students’ questions. I also believe each teacher must have some kind of background knowledge about the technology available and how to use or prepare that technology to assist them in their classroom. There are also many resources available that should need to be taken advantage of to help aid them and their students in the learning process because sometimes not even the teacher knows all the answers and will need to know whom they can go to for certain situations that may occur.

As a future teacher I will consider these moral and intellectual virtues and apply them the best I can with my own classroom. I believe these virtues help teachers succeed and accomplish their goal by learning and researching whatever needs to be done for the child to want to learn. I hope I can fulfill the needs for my students my following the virtues I believe in.


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