Josh Stone's
Teaching Philosophy
One of the best compliments I’ve ever gotten was from my manager a few months ago, she said, amidst laughter, “Your humor is so disarming!” Anxiety is one of the biggest issues in the classroom that keep students from learning. My whole life I have used humor to dismantle heavy situations. Being in food service for over a decade it’s been my modus operandi when dealing with irate customers, I would almost always leave turning a patrons’ frown into a smile. My humor will be a constant in the classroom, a way for earning my students’ trust, for accomplishing goals with each child, and for getting the best results out of my students.
When I was a kid, I was very lost. Constantly having important people in my life telling me how hard it would be to be a working artist was a serious obstacle. When they would ask me what I wanted to do or who I desired to be when I grew up. I’d respond, “An artist.” The worried and concerned look that soon followed would deflate me. It took me a long time to finally make the leap into the arts. In my mid-twenties I finally made a leap of faith and applied to art school. It really took the right teacher to empower me. My dream is to be a positive role model in these kids lives, instead of stifling their dreams, I want to help them grow their dreams like vines in the jungle; allowing their imaginations to run wild.
The biggest reason I yearned to go into teaching was to teach and empower kids to make art.
Children are individuals. That is a concept that’s very important to realize. Humans are not sheep and it’s the job of the teacher to cultivate that individuality. We all are talented in very different ways. As an educator I aspire to help each individual child to draw out the very best of their potential. As a kid, I was a dreamer, getting distracted was very easy. The old style of education really was a hindrance on my creativity. Realizing now from my own experience, kids all learn differently, I believe the school system now has the assets and tools to help me as a teacher to assist my students becoming the captains at the helm, steering their own ships.
I understand that I am not in the classroom to be their friend. I had a history teacher in the 10th grade who announced this on our first day of class. I think that was a bit drastic. I understood where he was coming from, and ironically, he became one of my favorite teachers in high school. I see my approach being very different. I feel it necessary to be fun-loving and humorous, because that’s who I am at heart. I mentioned the themes of humor and being a role model earlier and that’s exactly how I envision my teaching style. I think of the idea of molding and shaping. First by alleviating the anxiety in the classroom then by being a positive, creative force that can light up these kids minds I hope to help them grow as they need to grow. I will push them or rather lightly encourage them in the right direction as I won’t be in their lives forever, hopefully though, my philosophy of teaching will be that of something that will stick with them for the rest of their artistic adult lives.
When I was a kid, I was very lost. Constantly having important people in my life telling me how hard it would be to be a working artist was a serious obstacle. When they would ask me what I wanted to do or who I desired to be when I grew up. I’d respond, “An artist.” The worried and concerned look that soon followed would deflate me. It took me a long time to finally make the leap into the arts. In my mid-twenties I finally made a leap of faith and applied to art school. It really took the right teacher to empower me. My dream is to be a positive role model in these kids lives, instead of stifling their dreams, I want to help them grow their dreams like vines in the jungle; allowing their imaginations to run wild.
The biggest reason I yearned to go into teaching was to teach and empower kids to make art.
Children are individuals. That is a concept that’s very important to realize. Humans are not sheep and it’s the job of the teacher to cultivate that individuality. We all are talented in very different ways. As an educator I aspire to help each individual child to draw out the very best of their potential. As a kid, I was a dreamer, getting distracted was very easy. The old style of education really was a hindrance on my creativity. Realizing now from my own experience, kids all learn differently, I believe the school system now has the assets and tools to help me as a teacher to assist my students becoming the captains at the helm, steering their own ships.
I understand that I am not in the classroom to be their friend. I had a history teacher in the 10th grade who announced this on our first day of class. I think that was a bit drastic. I understood where he was coming from, and ironically, he became one of my favorite teachers in high school. I see my approach being very different. I feel it necessary to be fun-loving and humorous, because that’s who I am at heart. I mentioned the themes of humor and being a role model earlier and that’s exactly how I envision my teaching style. I think of the idea of molding and shaping. First by alleviating the anxiety in the classroom then by being a positive, creative force that can light up these kids minds I hope to help them grow as they need to grow. I will push them or rather lightly encourage them in the right direction as I won’t be in their lives forever, hopefully though, my philosophy of teaching will be that of something that will stick with them for the rest of their artistic adult lives.
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