C:\MYDOCU~1\ECE.HTM

Statement of Teaching Philosophy

A teacher wears many hats and plays many roles. A teacher is an enabler, a facilitator, a guide, a leader, a modeler, an evaluator, a counselor, an empowerer, a professional, a colleague and an authority. I believe that the learner is the key to teaching and thus all teaching must be learner- centered. A major part of my task as a teacher has been to help students learn how to learn as well as what to learn. Helping students ask the right questions is just as important as giving them the right answers. Facilitating students' abilities to find the answers for themselves enables them to acquire this very important life skill and puts them on the road to being lifelong learners.

Teaching is a dynamic process, ever flexible and responsive to changes in the subject area as well as the student population. Teachers must stay current with these changes and design strategies to maximize understanding in this dynamic environment. No subject can be taught in a vacuum; thus teaching across the curriculum is an important consideration.

Early childhood education is a multi-disciplinary field. Psychology, sociology, philosophy, business and technology all play their part in the education of early childhood educators. Strategies to include these disciplines into the curriculum should be encouraged and facilitated. Working with children is as much an art as an academic field, thus the ability to help students bring their unique talents and personalities into the classroom is very important. This ability is in itself an art and takes sensitivity, understanding and experience to bring to flower in individual students.

Finally, a teacher must always be a learner, gaining continuing education experiences from all available sources both formal and informal. The teacher-student relationship thus can be one of mutual roles where the student can sometimes become the teacher and the teacher sometimes becomes the student.