Teaching Philosophy

Let’s start…

Language learning, which is different from Language Acquisition, in my point of view, is a process that extends beyond memorizing grammar rules and vocabulary lists. Instead, I would want to present kids with true and relevant language experiences that enable them to apply the language in real-life situations. Thus my teaching philosophy revolves around building an inclusive and immersive language-learning setting, scaffolding & differentiation, secure & supportive relationships, and assessment.

It is worth mentioning that in addition to teaching the materials, I want to focus on teaching the students how to learn rather than bombarding them with homework and tasks with no clear goal! As a result, they are leaders of their lives rather than followers! One way to achieve this is to use project-based learning, taking their age and level into consideration, in which students can learn on their own but with the supervision of the teacher. 

Moreover, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), or in other words, Content-Based Learning (CBI) is a creative and productive pathway for students to learn and grow linguistically, and academically. Moreover, today is known for the digital era, and the new generation is called digital natives, therefore I am not dubious at all that technology should be integrated into the classroom, school, teacher education programs, etc. completely.

Let’s talk about some features that I am looking forward to having in my classes!

Technology Integration in Classrooms

Merits of Technology Integration:

  1. Enhanced Engagement: Technology can make learning more interactive and engaging through multimedia content, educational games, and interactive simulations. This can increase student motivation and interest in the subject matter.
  2. Personalized Learning: Digital tools and adaptive learning software can tailor educational experiences to individual student needs, allowing for customized learning paths and pacing.
  3. Access to Information: Technology provides instant access to a vast amount of information and resources, enabling students to conduct research, explore diverse perspectives, and deepen their understanding of topics.
  4. Collaboration and Communication: Online platforms and tools facilitate collaboration and communication among students, both within and outside the classroom. This prepares students for modern, tech-driven work environments.
  5. Skill Development: Integrating technology helps students develop critical 21st-century skills, such as digital literacy, problem-solving, and critical thinking, which are essential for future success.

Demerits of Technology Integration:

  1. Digital Divide: Not all students have equal access to technology and the internet, which can exacerbate existing educational inequalities.
  2. Distraction: The presence of technology in the classroom can be a source of distraction, leading to off-task behavior and reduced focus on learning activities.
  3. Over-reliance on Technology: Excessive use of technology can diminish the development of fundamental skills, such as handwriting and mental arithmetic, and reduce face-to-face social interactions.
  4. Privacy and Security Concerns: The use of digital tools raises concerns about data privacy and cybersecurity, particularly regarding the protection of student information.
  5. Training and Support: Effective technology integration requires significant investment in training for educators, as well as ongoing technical support, which can be resource-intensive.

Implementation of Technology Integration:

  1. Assess Needs and Resources: The technological needs and available resources should be evaluated within the school community to ensure equitable access to devices and internet connectivity for all students.
  2. Develop a Strategic Plan: A comprehensive plan that outlines goals should be developed, and the plan should have a timeline, and measure for integrating technology into the curriculum. This plan should include input from educators, students, parents, and IT specialists.
  3. Professional Development: The responsible unit should provide continuous professional development opportunities for teachers to enhance their technological proficiency and pedagogical strategies for using technology effectively in the classroom.
  4. Select Appropriate Tools: Technology tools and platforms that align with educational objectives and enhance learning outcomes must be chosen.
  5. Incorporate Blended Learning: Teachers have to utilize a blended learning model that combines traditional instructional methods with digital resources. This approach can help balance screen time with hands-on, interactive activities.
  6. Focus on Digital Citizenship: We have to educate students about responsible and ethical use of technology, including topics such as online safety, digital footprints, and cyberbullying.
  7. Monitor and Evaluate: We must continuously monitor the impact of technology integration on student engagement and achievement. Collecting feedback from students and teachers to identify areas for improvement and adjust strategies accordingly.

By thoughtfully integrating technology into the classroom, educators can create dynamic, engaging, and inclusive learning environments that prepare students for the digital world while addressing potential challenges and ensuring equitable access for all learners.

Inclusive & Immersive Setting

An inclusive and immersive language-learning environment is one where all students feel welcome and respected regardless of their background or level of proficiency in the language being taught. In such an environment, I will be able to create opportunities for students to actively use and practice the language in real-life contexts, rather than just memorizing grammar rules and vocabulary lists. It also includes providing a variety of teaching methods and resources that cater to the diverse needs and learning styles of all students and differentiating instruction to ensure that all students have the opportunity to succeed. Furthermore, it also helps develop cultural understanding and appreciation as a part of the language-learning process. An immersive environment also means creating an atmosphere where students are constantly surrounded by the language they are trying to learn, be it through reading, listening, speaking, or writing activities.

To achieve this, the environment must:

  1. Foster a Sense of Belonging and Psychological Safety: Students should feel that their contributions are valued and that mistakes are a natural part of the learning process. This can be facilitated through supportive classroom dynamics and positive reinforcement, drawing on principles from positive psychology.
  2. Incorporate Social-Emotional Learning (SEL): Integrating SEL into language learning helps students develop self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. These skills support effective communication and collaboration in a language-learning context.
  3. Promote Cultural Understanding and Appreciation: Developing cultural competence is essential in language learning. This involves integrating cultural content and perspectives into lessons, fostering an appreciation for the diverse cultural backgrounds of the students, and using culturally responsive teaching practices. This not only enhances language skills but also prepares students to use the language in a global context.

Scaffolding and Differentiation

During the study of SLA, and my lovely professor’s classes, Joanna Głogowska, I learned that there is no one method for teaching language since the methods are overgeneralized, and too prescriptive, so, I always go for eclecticism in teaching English. Since students have different needs and levels, I would be dedicated to deploying scaffolding and differentiation in order to suit the unique needs and levels of competence of all students, employing a variety of teaching methods such as cooperative learning. I want to prepare various worksheets and assignments based on the student’s needs and interests. Let me explain in context If I have two students with two different aims, like one of them is interested in music, and the other one in biology, I want to give them different and semi-similar tasks, it helps them learn different words and usages of the language, also it helps them expand their interested area horizon. When I was a teacher in Kurdistan, I had a class of teens, 8 girls, and 3 boys. One of the boys hated the English language since he was really bad at it and could not pass the English exam at school, his parents forced him to participate in the course, and after a week, via communicating with the students and understanding their needs, I understood that he really likes football and video games, and I thought by teaching him English in the contexts he likes, he can master the language and enjoy learning it. I used different assignments and tasks for him based on his interests, one of the tasks was preparing a poster about his favorite football team and its achievements. At the end of the course, he had mastered the A1 level of English and I was very proud of him.

Steps to Implement Eclecticism, Scaffolding, and Differentiation:

  1. Assess Student Needs and Levels:
    • Initial Assessment: I will begin with diagnostic assessments to understand the students’ current proficiency levels, learning styles, and individual needs.
    • Ongoing Assessment: I will use formative assessments (e.g., quizzes, observations, feedback) to continually gauge student progress and adjust teaching strategies accordingly.
  2. Plan Varied Teaching Methods:
    • Eclectic Approach: I will combine elements from different language teaching methods (e.g., Communicative Language Teaching, Total Physical Response, Task-Based Learning) to create a well-rounded instructional plan.
    • Lesson Planning: I will design lessons that incorporate a mix of activities catering to different learning styles, such as visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and read/write learners.
  3. Implement Scaffolding:
    • Breaking Down Tasks: I will divide complex tasks into smaller, more manageable steps, providing guidance at each stage.
    • Modeling: I will demonstrate tasks or concepts before asking students to perform them independently.
    • Think-Alouds: I will verbally walk through your thought process during problem-solving or language use to model cognitive strategies.
    • Gradual Release of Responsibility: I will start with more teacher support and gradually reduce it as students become more proficient, following the “I do, we do, you do” model.
  4. Differentiate Instruction:
    • Content Differentiation: I will provide materials at varying levels of difficulty and complexity to match student readiness.
    • Process Differentiation: I will offer different pathways for students to engage with content, such as individual, pair, or group work, and hands-on activities.
    • Product Differentiation: I will allow students to demonstrate their understanding in various ways, such as through written reports, presentations, or creative projects.
    • Learning Environment Differentiation: I will arrange the classroom to support different learning activities, such as quiet areas for independent work and collaborative spaces for group tasks.
  5. Employ Cooperative Learning:
    • Structured Group Work: I will use cooperative learning structures like Jigsaw, Think-Pair-Share, and Group Investigations to promote interaction and peer learning.
    • Role Assignment: I will assign specific roles within groups (e.g., recorder, reporter, timekeeper) to ensure accountability and equal participation.
    • Collaborative Skills: I will teach and reinforce skills necessary for effective collaboration, such as active listening, respectful communication, and conflict resolution.
  6. Integrate Technology:
    • Digital Tools: I will use language learning apps, online resources, and educational software to provide diverse and interactive learning experiences.
    • Multimedia Resources: I will incorporate videos, audio recordings, and interactive websites to enrich lessons and engage different learning styles.
    • Virtual Collaboration: I will facilitate online discussion forums, video conferencing, and collaborative documents to extend learning beyond the classroom.

Supportive Relationships

In order to have trust and respect from each other, the teacher-student relationship should be a positive one. Having a positive relationship for me means knowing my students and being able to understand their needs. This can be done via observing, having conversations with them, and getting help from the school and parents. Only after having this, I will be able to encourage them to do better. In Kurdistan, I am not sure about Poland, I have no doubts that students are learning from their friends more than from their teachers, so I do my best to be their friend and let them consider me as someone who is helping them learn. It is not really easy to establish such a connection with students, but I have tried some ways and they are working well so far. Here, I am mentioning some of those ways. I can establish it by showing them that I do care about them, and this can be done via talking and listening to them and asking about their daily life. Giving choices always worked for me, and helped me understand them better and have their best interest in my mind. Having cooperation activities with students is also another way to create such a relationship. Once, I started an activity that was arranging trips to different places in Kurdistan, I divided the students into groups and made each group accountable for each trip under my supervision. It really helped them to share their ideas and while we were working on the trip plan, we learned a lot about each other.
In conclusion, having a positive relationship with your students helps them become more successful in the classroom as well as makes your classroom a safe and welcoming environment for all.

Assessment

Last but not least regarding this philosophy of teaching, I am really skeptical about the examination of the students since it makes them stressed and scared, and it encourages the students to learn to pass the course not to really get the knowledge. I think the root of this idea from me belongs to my childhood when I was always asked to get a high mark!

A student will be having tons of information and his knowledge cannot be evaluated by forcing him to answer a bunch of questions. Instead of that, I wish to coop with them with assignments, tasks, worksheets, and activities that are relevant to their course and real-life situations. I want to focus on the time they spend on getting their tasks ready and how they do it not only on the results, it does not mean that I do not care about results, but it is nice to appreciate the time students are spending on learning. When it comes to assessing their assignments or worksheets, I always try to look at them from different corners, not only looking for correct answers.

I do consider their previous performances before assessing them. A smart student might not play well in an activity due to having some problems, such as family issues, psychological problems, problems with a friend, or an event that made him sad. A slow learner might get disappointed if I tell him that he is not learning and is weak, or if I give them negative feedback. It will not help him or encourage him to try harder, but it might lead him to give up on learning! Overall, I do think that I am a formative assessment person not a summative. During the assessment, I am supposed to talk with my students and give them feedback. Giving feedback is a very critical issue. I myself do not like feedback without guidance since it makes me stressed and lost, I think it is the same for the majority of the people in Kurdistan and Kurdish students. If I ask my students to plan a planting project, I want to shed light on the sections that need to be improved, and how they can make it better by giving them recommendations and time. Moreover, I want to quote a statement from Joshua, my Academic Discourse and Public Speaking courses professor، that comes to my mind whenever I think of teaching and students.

If you ever shut the door at the student, it won’t get opened again easily. So never shut the door!

Joshua Skjold

One of the ways of assessing students could be Show and Tell in which students bring in an object or picture related to the topic being studied and explain it or its significance. Students hold up a thumb to indicate their level of understanding or agreement on a topic, it has been called Thumb-O-Meter. If I want to check students’ level of understanding of a topic, I can go for Word Splash where students brainstorm a list of words related to a topic. There are tons of techniques to assess students, another one that I read it very recently for my Assessment course is the “Photos to Assess Learning” assessment technique. It is a creative and engaging method of evaluating young learners’ understanding and application of grammar tenses, such as the present continuous or past tenses like past simple. It involves presenting students with a series of pictures and asking them to write a caption and a short description based on what they see.

In this technique, teachers or educators select a variety of visually stimulating images that are relevant to the grammatical concept being practiced. These images can depict everyday scenes, events, or situations that lend themselves well to different tenses and verb forms. For example, a picture showing a person playing sports could be used to practice the present continuous tense.

Once the pictures are shown, young learners are tasked with writing a caption, which is a concise phrase or sentence that captures the essence of the image. Additionally, they are required to provide a short description, which allows them to further elaborate on the events or actions depicted in the picture. By engaging in this exercise, young learners are encouraged to apply their knowledge of grammar tenses in a practical and creative way. They have to consider the appropriate verb forms, sentence structure, and vocabulary choices to accurately describe the image using the desired tense. This assessment technique not only helps them practice and reinforce grammar skills but also enhances their writing and descriptive abilities.

Moreover, using visual stimuli like pictures makes the assessment process more enjoyable and relatable for young learners. It taps into their visual literacy and stimulates their imagination, enabling them to connect with the content on a deeper level. It also provides an opportunity for them to express their creativity and personal interpretation of the images.

The “Photos to Assess Learning” technique not only evaluates the understanding of grammar tenses but also promotes critical thinking, language fluency, and the ability to communicate effectively. It allows teachers to assess students’ comprehension of the targeted grammar concepts in a dynamic and interactive manner while providing meaningful feedback and guidance for improvement.

Overall, this assessment technique offers an engaging and effective way to practice and assess young learners’ understanding and application of grammar tenses by using visual stimuli and encouraging them to write captions and descriptions based on the pictures presented.