My philosophy of learning and teaching is based on my education at Teachers College and Lehigh University as well as my professional corporate and school experiences.  My philosophy is also based on educators and researchers such as Dewey, Lisa Delpit, Shirley Brice Heath and Lucy Calkins, as well as many others.

    Education is a field that has potential to accomplish many different goals as well as having many different avenues that can be traveled to reach those goals.  As an educator, I realize that my philosophy will continue to change, bend and grow as I encounter new experiences.  The many different potentials of education can be both beneficial as well as harmful to the educational community (students, teachers, etc.) as well as to society as a whole.  The purpose of education should be to accomplish as many of the potentially beneficial outcomes as possible.  The goal should be to educate students in content area such as math, science and English, but to do so through a process that stresses critical thinking, individualism, cohesiveness, multiculturalism and students’ strengths as well as weaknesses.  In this way, the student receives the benefit of acquiring skills as well as concrete subject knowledge.  The goal of education should also be to make it possible for students to receive subject knowledge that they will need to function in society on a local, national and international level.

    This philosophy has clearly guided the interdisciplinary unit that is incorporated into this portfolio.  Believing in the principles stated above has aided me in creating an environment for the elementary classes that I have taught in. I will take them with me into all of my future experiences.