Skip to main content

My First Teaching Philosophy

 

Joshua Harke’s Teaching Philosophy

Introduction

In 2019, I decided to go back to Central Piedmont Community College to get a transfer degree so I could return to UNC Charlotte as a pre-teaching student. I chose teaching because my marketing associate degree wasn’t cutting it as a career. I want to be a teacher because I want to give back to the community and be an advocate for the voiceless. I decided that I would like to become a teacher, in high school. I wanted to be a history teacher or a physical therapist and those are very different professions. I was a teacher aid for the PE teacher for 2nd and 3rd graders and 7th and 8th graders. I was a natural with the elementary kids.

My family has an abundance of teachers in the lines of the Harke’s and Hughson’s. My mom was a teacher/administrator of a preschool up in Syracuse, New York called Little Lamb. She would read Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Suess, and they would serve green eggs and ham to the kids that day. I was allowed to go to school with mom that day, dad tells me. Reading and education was highly important in our house. When my little brother, Jasper was alive we had teachers and therapists in and out of our house like it was just an everyday thing. It was normal for me to be around teachers, and they were special education teachers. Jasper was the most specialist important person to me on the face of the planet. He is my catalyst for my charity organization, The Jasper Tree, hence named after him. His teachers were phenomenal, and they made him work and he was a stinker and they loved him, but they had to put in work with him. He was so smart while being nonverbal, they had to use methods and electronic tools to help him communicate. He inspired me to volunteer with Horse-N-Around TRC in Lancaster, SC where I worked with therapists and special needs kids while they rode horses.

Conceptualization of Learning

Students with special needs face the obstacles that are very different from other non-disabled students. Students with EBD get distracted, emotionally beat themselves up, have a higher chance to be bullied and be a bully or easily frustrated with the homework than other students. I relate one hundred percent. I want to be an advocate for mental health among students non-disabled and disabled. Many students don’t have a voice and I would like to help them advocate for themselves.

Conceptualization of Teaching

               I’ve always romanticized Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society, in that I would have my special education students ripping out pages from Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief on the first day of class. I know that’s not realistic, and my students are not going to call me their captain. My teaching style is hands on. In my lesson plan I didn’t get to finish it through the whole way, but I felt effective because I was able to adapt and change things as I saw that the worksheet wasn’t working the way I had designed it. I had them writing out the context clue when it could have been much simpler by underlining and circling subject matter. I think that being an adaptive teacher is what will make me effective. I ran into this problem with my student that fell behind everyone and was very frustrated. I kept the lesson plan rolling but I went to her desk and tried to modify the lesson on the roll based on her. I didn’t want anyone to feel like that they couldn’t do it, when I knew they were capable.

Relationships with Families and Students

               I cannot wait to meet the families of my students. If I’m an elementary teacher I will eat up the school’s social media letting the parents know how proud I am of their student. Parents need to know all the good their student is doing along with the problematic spots that happen. I want to have parents come to visit my classroom and give me some input on their student and what home life is like for them. If I get placed in a middle school, I want to have that same clear communication line as before. I believe that Teacher/Parent/Student is the communication chain. Outside of the education realm, I’m willing to let them see my life. I want to share that I’m like them, make myself human and relatable to the parents and my students.

Professional Growth Plan

               In the future, I see myself going back to UNCC to masters in Trauma studies to help students. I want to do that while I’m teaching. I never thought I’d have a BA so having positive peer pressure and support I have been able to see myself doing that as well. I see myself being on the board of education representing the Exceptional Children’s department in the County. I want to advocate for the parents and their students. I want to get us the funding that we need to operate at an optimal efficiency. Building networks through my charity organization is how I’m going to get there. With my charity organization I want to build foundations in Charlotte and surrounding areas that help special needs families get every resource that will help them thrive.

Popular posts from this blog

Mentally Okay Enough to Love Life

"Even when I'm sick and depressed, I love life." ~Arthur Rubinstein Great quote.   Why? Because it touches my very essence. I may not seem to love life at points but I'll never take my own life or intentionally take another life. Well there was this one time when there was fog on my back road near my house, I hit a raccoon. In his defense he might have had rabies. It can't be confirmed or denied... I didn't file a police report at the time. Okay well this speaks to me about mental illness which in our darkest hour of being sick and depressed, those who suffer from chronic depression, sometimes dream of death. Well this speaks volumes, love life. We all don't get to come back from the dead, we stare death in the face many times but once you're gone you are gone. Love life, love your life... Sometimes I feel like my life is the pits, as if I have reached the lowest low, feeling as if no one loves me, when in reality 1000's of peop...

Systematic of a Love for Life!

I came across this post looking at quotes about love... "I am not systematic at all when it comes to religion. I just love life. And I'm not judgmental. And I'm a vegetarian." ~ Erykah Badu I find this is a true statement for her but for a logical person it doesn't make sense, it's all in the wording... 1. Does being non judgmental have anything to do with being a vegetarian?? I find that there are many vegetarians whom judge the ones who eat meat everyday... but I was also on a dating site browsing and I came across a young lady who said that she doesn't eat meat but it's okay if the guy she dates does. I feel that this would be a hard truth to handle, I mean is it wrong on April Fools Day to spray her pillow with a bacon scented perfume? I feel meat is one of those deal breakers... 2. It's written in the Bible that Daniel while in Babylon didn't eat meat with the other Jews who were in captivity there. So there is nothing wrong wit...

Jasper's memory in my mind!

I would like to think I have many friends that I care about and care about me. Let me tell you about my little brother. Jasper Aaron Harke, was born in Syracuse, NY on August 24th, 1994. Well, Jasper meant a lot to me, I pleaded with my mom to take this baby that was disabled. My mom said, "Let me pray about taking him because I'm not Sarah... If you don't know Biblical history, Sarah is Abraham's Wife... She was very old when she had her son. My mom raised lots of foster children and her 2 own and 2 own adopted. My mom is old... It's true pushing her way through the 70's... His bio mom was on drugs and she was a cocaine addict and probably on some other things. She gave birth to a normal baby but then took him home and blew coke in his face when he wouldn't stop crying. He ended up having a couple of cardiac arrests, the little man immediately ended up in foster care. It was quite miraculous he lived. If you are planning to be a parent someday and are do...