Professional Philosophy

This paper represents my professional philosophy.  Within this paper are the reasons for my chosen major, a brief history of where I've been and where I'm going professionally following my time at Ottawa University. 

Professional Philosophy

Introduction

This chapter of my educational life began in late 2010.  Following the recent death of my daughter, I began to reevaluate my life and the direction it was taking.  In 2006, I found myself living on my own for the first time, and as such I needed to find a full time job that would pay the bills.  To that end I dropped out of college and took a job as a sales associate at our local U.S. Cellular office.  I have remained there ever since.  I’ve never been happy in a sales environment, and have always wanted to find a way to finish my education and move on.  I finally decided that it was as good a time as any and started my task of finishing what I started.  I began pursuing a degree in mass communications due to my interest in television and movie production.   When it came time for me to choose a major at Ottawa, I decided to follow the same line of thinking that I had before and chose communications.  My whole life has been devoted to communicating with people.  I have to clearly communicate in order to do my job effectively.  I have to communicate clearly when I am performing in a play/musical.  Clear verbal communication has always been something I have tried to accomplish, even if some of my writing is lacking clarity.

My Chosen Major

My reasoning for choosing communications as my major at Ottawa is actually somewhat complicated.  Mainly I chose to follow this major because I already had started down that road, before dropping out in 2006.  Secondly, I have two possibilities of courses of action for my degree.  I can use my degree to try to climb the corporate ladder at my current job, but it will also serve me in my ultimate choice, teaching high school history.  I will be going through an alternative teaching certification course upon graduating from Ottawa.  I find the subject of history to be endlessly fascinating, and many would wonder why I wouldn’t choose to make history my major. 

The aforementioned reasons not withstanding, I didn’t choose history because I read history books and articles all the time because I enjoy it.  It is a bit of a hobby of mine.  Communications is something that I have to work at and feel that I needed to strengthen my knowledge and ability in this area.  Everything from small group communication to intercultural communication to interpersonal communication, these courses will serve me in knowing how to positively deal with people in many different situations.  Teaching is no exception.  Many of the concepts and theories that were presented in my communications courses were reiterated by the educational courses I have been taking. 

My Philosophy

My choice of profession, teaching high school history, I would suppose is inspired by my entire life being spent in the education system.  My father was a mathematics teacher and a coach for many years.  After fifteen years of teaching, he decided to pursue administration, became a principal, and shortly after became the superintendent of the Commerce public school system.  My mother decided to stay at home with me until I was of school age.  After this, she became the secretary at Commerce high school.  All my life I was surrounded by educators and people in the education system.  My father has always spent countless extra hours working at his office and I tagged along on many occasions.  I would explore the buildings, read books, and use the computer system.  By the time I was in the sixth grade I was already more familiar with the way many of the computer systems worked than most of the faculty.

As a reflection on my personal relationships, I’ve always had a need to inform people.  I’ll study up on a subject and feel compelled to tell others about it.  I do have my areas of expertise within history.  For example, I have much greater than basic knowledge about the Titanic disaster.  This began in 1987 when Dr. Robert Ballard was a guest on an episode of Reading Rainbow.  I have countless books, documentaries, and films on the subject. 

As a reflection on my religious views, I suppose much of my growth as a communicator has come with my growth as a Christian.  At the same time that my life was in flux and I decided to go back to college, I was also re-examining my spiritual beliefs.  I never was questioning God’s existence, but rather what the bible actually says and what it means.  I’ve found that more often than not, people’s understanding of what the bible says and biblical principles is based on rules that are created by man.  I felt a need to get back to basics.  When the dust settled, I found that, as a Christian, all I needed to express to other people was love.  My personal relationship with my lord and savior was strengthened and I found that maintaining positive relationships was a must.  This was also backed up in my communications courses.  Maintaining positive relationships is a key element of keeping communication going. 

I believe that I am a positive fit for teaching not only because I love to inform other people about a subject that I’m passionate about, but also because I care about people and their education.  I would like to think that I will have a positive impact on my students.  My hope is to make the subject come to life as they may not have experienced it before.  I will have all of my experience in the field of communication to aide me in teaching my students as well as my family and friends that are educators.  I will rely on the plethora of knowledge at my disposal to help teach and keep my classroom orderly and organized. 

There are five beliefs that I find will guide my way in nearly all of life’s challenges thus far.  The first is to treat people the way I would like to be treated.  “The golden rule” is not a new concept, but I find that it is good to remind oneself to step back.  Not everyone can be changed by being aggressive with them.  Treating others with the respect lets others know where I stand and what is expected of them.  The second principle is to improve myself to improve my teaching.  I will need to perform some self evaluation to determine where my faults are and attempt to fix them.  The third principle is to look at contemporary learning opportunities.  I have found that some of the most profound learning experiences occur when students have a common frame of reference.  Using pop culture and current events and not only incorporating them, but also drawing from them as learning tools can be extremely effective if not over used.  The fourth principle that will guide me is my belief that the only bad question is the one that is never asked.  I intend to be as forthcoming as possible with my students.  I want to answer any of their questions if I am able to.  If I’m not able to answer it off the top of my head, I will do my best to find the answer with them.  Finally, the fifth principle that will guide me is that courage is being scared out of your mind, but suiting up and doing your job anyway.  I’ve been around the education system long enough to know that things are going to happen.  Things that people don’t think they will ever deal with.  I have followed this principle of courage many times in my life.  I’ve used it throughout high school, my current job, and on stage.  I used it to its greatest degree when I was performing as The Cowardly Lion in Miami Little Theatre’s production of The Wizard of Oz as my daughter was dying, and shortly after when I decided to give my daughters eulogy at her funeral. 

I think that the current state of principles and values in the education system has taken a dip in recent years.  More and more these days it seems there are teacher scandals even in our small community.  That being said, for the most part I feel that the individuals in our community have the best interests of the students in mind.  One example of someone of impeccable character would be an art teacher here at Commerce high school.  There were a handful of students that couldn’t afford to pay for supplies.  This teacher took it upon herself to pay for the supplies, which are not cheap, rather than letting them pass up the opportunity to take the class.  Another example would be my father who does whatever it takes to accomplish the task before him.  I’ve never seen anyone more dedicated to anything.  He has been so devoted to the school system that it is not unheard of for him to stay up doing paperwork until 3:00AM.  If there’s an event, he’s there.  If there’s a meeting, he’s there.  I told him long ago, I could never do what he does.  He told me that he never thought he would either.  I suppose I should be so lucky to be so close to anyone of high moral and ethical standards.  He was just renewed for his 20^th year as superintendent.  I suppose he’s doing something right. 

I intend to address many of the shortcomings of teaching through my actions as a teacher.  I will attend workshops and seminars that will be beneficial to enhancing my abilities.  I will also try to bring as many of my peers/coworkers along with me to hopefully help them as well.  The bottom line is, I don’t think that there is anything fundamentally broken in the teaching profession, I just think that teachers sometimes need to remember why they are there.  In the Miami school system, it is not uncommon for teachers to send students on errands off campus.  My wife, who was a graduate of Miami, wasn’t even required to attend certain classes, not because she was smart, but because she was running errands for her teachers.  To this day, I am constantly finding things that are basic concepts of various subjects that she is not familiar with.  I consider her, and many others that I know, to have been failed by the education system. They were passed along, even though they hadn’t learned anything.

Closing

In closing, I feel that I am extremely well suited to be a teacher.  I am passionate about the subject I have chosen, I am passionate and students success, and I will do whatever it takes to make sure I do my job to the fullest potential.  I have great empathy for students and their personal lives. I intend to better myself for my students by attending classes and seminars of my own. I want to make their classroom experience so enlightening and illuminating that it fires their imaginations and lights their path.  I truly believe that students can be great if they wish to be, they only lack the light to show the way.