I am asking you to write a teaching philosophy as your final exam for a few reasons. Teaching positions and in some cases, credential programs, will they ask you to write a teaching philosophy. They will want to know your approach to teaching, what role you believe education should have in society, and in some cases, they will ask you about your level of consciousness about socio-economic challenges and education. Search and admissions committees will also want to know concrete ways you implement or plan to implement your philosophy on education. You, for example, may write in your teaching philosophy that setting up a safe and welcoming environment is critical to learning. To demonstrate how you would do this, you will need to explain that you achieve that welcoming and safe environment by speaking informally with each of your students throughout the week about anything, but school to develop a relationship with them. You may also explain that rather than discipline behavior, you think about keeping relationships and fixing them when you need to fix them. By doing this, you can expect students to also take the initiative to fix relationships when they are broken. These are just a few examples that show an abstract theoretical/philosophical idea related to learning with concrete examples of implementation.

We have explored different ways to teach US History at the K-12 level using the works of Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. By (Zaretta Hammond), For White Folks who Teach in the Hood…and for the Rest of Y’all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education.Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2016. By (Christopher Emdin), Better than Carrots or Sticks: Restorative Practices for Positive Classroom Management. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2015. By (Dominique Smith, Douglas Fisher, and Nancy Frey. ( The highlight part is the books that we used in the class) The period of exploration we examined was from the before the arrival of Europeans to the Americas through World War I. A teaching philosophy related to the discipline of History should also explain the relationship with society, that is, it should address the question of why and how we should teach History. I, for example, have made the argument that the past never leaves us. We are still living through the effects of the conquest of Native Americans starting in the sixteenth century, the legacies of slavery, the ways sexism developed, and, unfortunately, racism continues as an issue. Recall Ogbu’s theory regarding the relationship between social challenges and conquest. Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Puerto Ricans in this country, for example, continue to experience socio-economic challenges largely because they entered this country as conquered people. The past, therefore, for these groups will never go away. History also explains why other groups live a life of privilege in this country because they never experienced conquest.

A teaching philosophy will ask you to delve into concrete ways you would teach US History. You, for example, may mention in your teaching philosophy that the histories of women are important because by ignoring them we ignore half the population and, therefore, a critical part of our society and history. To show how you would teach the History of women, you may do what last week’s group did and implement social media as a way to raise an awareness about the difficult experiences women have faced to achieve equal rights. Women continue to live in a society of double standards.

I would like you to write a teaching philosophy for your final exam in this class that is between three to five double-spaced pages long. In the first part, develop your philosophy about 2 teaching in general. Please provide concrete examples. I will require that you use the three pedagogical works we have examined to develop that philosophy of teaching. In the second part, delve into concrete ways that you would teach the following three issues related to US History from Pre-Columbian times to WWI: Slavery and Racism, Capitalism and Life, Women. You should show an understanding of every major period in US History that we have explored. I will use the following rubric to grade your work so please include all of them in the paper:

1. Did the student format their paper according to the following: 12pt Font, 1 in. margins, double-spaced, and Times New Roman? 2pts

2. Did the student write only their name and the date on the top left-hand corner? 2pts

3. Does the title state Teaching Philosophy? 2pts

4. Does the first sentence supply the scope of the teaching philosophy? 5pts

5. Does the first part of the teaching philosophy develop a pedagogical approach with concrete examples? 20pts

6. Does the second part of the teaching philosophy develop a concrete pedagogical approach to teach Slavery and Racism, Capitalism and Life, and Women in US History? 20pts

7. Does the second part show an understanding of different periods in US History from PreColumbian times to WWI? 20pts

8. Did the student use the works of Zaretta Hammond, Christopher Emdin, Dominique Smith, Douglas Fisher, and Nancy Frey? 10pts

9. Did the student write three to five double-spaced pages? 5pts

10. Did the student draft a well-written paper with few grammatical and style mistakes? 14pts Total:

100pts