My Goal As an Educator Is to Facilitate Learning in a Caring Environment That Encourages

Benjamin Legrand Teaching Philosophy

Teaching Philosophy:

My goal as an educator is to facilitate learning in a caring environment that encourages discoveries and incorporates respect and the intrinsic value of the self. My goal is to guide students to take responsibility for their learning and encourage my students to be creative, intellectually curious and independent.

INDIVIDUAL CHILD:

Each child is an individual with different learning styles and methods. In our society based heavily on standardized testing, more emphasis is placed on meeting testing outcomes and not about teaching and servicing the student. Children need positive inspiration to achieve their own successes with an innovative curriculum that stimulates thinking not just test-taking skills. Tailoring curricula to fit the needs of each and every student is necessary to provide for the basic academic growth of the student.

FAMILY:

Each child has a family and I am committed to educational quality and student and family performance. Families are indeed critical to the success of education. In recognizing that parents may not have all the tools to help their children, I am committed to advocating for parental assistance programs and GED programs to assist parents in contributing to the educational growth of the child and parent.

MEDIA:

I believe media is an incredible tool in educating our students. In a highly technological and fast-past society, we as teachers must stay on-top of societal trends to make learning more relevant to the students. Passive learning, especially in an early childhood and primary environment, is a style of the past. I believe in the resurgence of educational programming with shows that use interactive games and activities to encourage students and stimulate language cognitive, physical, social and emotional development at the primary level. At higher levels, students need programming to effectively stimulate cognitive and higher-order thinking while also relating society and its surrounding effects on a personal level.

My primary goal as an educator is to lay a solid foundation in basic skills while challenging students to self-discovery in a caring, nurturing environment. The challenge as teachers is to motivate joyous learners while emphasizing mastery of subject matter and further integrate material into their lives.

On Teaching:

“If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.”

On Children:

"You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in you dreams."

Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet.