Journal #3
7/7/12
Professor Robins

There are many people and life experiences that have inspired me to become an educator. The most significant philosophy on education has been influenced by teachers in my life, theorist from the past and movies that I call teacher movies. The teacher that inspired me to become a teacher is Mr.Shakespear, my 6th grade art teacher. He was down to earth person who let us know that he was in charge, but he would come down to our level to help us better understand the world of art. He always taught us that art is in the eye of an individual. He opened my eyes to things that I never thought was art such as: architecture, letter fonts, or the simplest stroke of a pen. The greatest gift he gave me is to have a personal relationship with each student because all students come from different backgrounds and each student may require a different style of teaching order to reach that student. The theorist that inspire me the most are Montessori, Freud, and Froebel. I love the Montessori concept because it is both philosophy of child development and a plan for guiding growth. Just like Montessori, I believe that the classroom should be a carefully prepared environment. I also love the Montessori style classrooms and the self correcting features. According to Freud, the personality has the most important aspect of development, more central to human growth than language, perception, or cognition. Thus the interaction between a child and their mother or adult play was an important part of a child’s development. All psychoanalytic explanations of human development emphasize the critical importance of relationships with people and the sequence, or stages of personality, development. I also follow the teachings of Froebel the creator of kindergarten. Kindergarten continues to model its historical Froebelian ideals. Preferring teacher directed free play and advocating child initiated projects. Movies have also inspired me to want to reach and teach children. I like to call these movies “teacher movies” because they motivate you to go beyond your call of duty to inspire students to do their best in the classroom and in life. My top 3 favorite teacher movies are as followed:

Lean on Me (1989)
Morgan Freeman has played a limo driver, a U.S. president, a prison