Reviewing my teaching philosophy

How do we make contact with young people?

How do we engage with students? 

Currently studying my two final units at Western Sydney University (WSU) which are designed to prepare pre-service teachers on their journey of teaching and get graduates ready for the classroom. The courses lead students to re-evaluate their position as teachers and prompt them to rethink what they now believe is being a good teacher and how this new idea of how teaching fits in with how we think about education now after three years of studying about children, the schools they go to and education system that supports them. 

This was my starting point when I began my learning at WSU:

https://www.ixandro.com/personal-philosophy

I am so glad Dr Paul Rooney is enabling this reflection, and facilitating the process of how we review our position as teachers. Turns out that I have changed more than ever, only possible by reading my own personal stance back in 2019 when Dr Roberto Parada was teaching us how to "Developing your personal philosophy of classroom management" lead by the team from Cengage Learning and ideas developed by the great John De Nobile - strangely enough also originally from Western Sydney but now residing at Macquarie University. The book in reference to all this is called: 

Positive Learning Environments: Creating and Maintaining Productive Classrooms

http://jenki.com.au/?portfolio=mobile-attachment-20

The question has always been: how can we connect with students unless we know who they are and where they come from? How do we find out who they are and how do we get to know them? Over the past year, a lot of the information has depended on data-driven research conducted here and there and everywhere and experts have come up with formulas, numbers, and statistics informing readers percentages and figures, taking away the human factor of relationships and connections made one-on-one, in groups and in situ in the classroom.