Mrs. Rigby's 3rd Grade Class: Our Class

My philosophy of education is based around my belief that the purpose of education and schooling is to enrich the minds of children, and to prepare our country’s youth for their future in society. I have come to learn that neither of these things is of greater importance than the other. Instead, they are equally important. In fact, they feed off of each other. I have learned that educators can prepare students for society by creating a community in the classroom environment. While observing numerous classroom communities I have learned that there is even more to be taken from this approach. I have found one of the greatest benefits of community-building in the classroom is that it facilitates learning.

I strongly believe that students learn best when they are in the safety of a classroom community that develops their capacity for connections to a particular group of people, while preparing them to be citizens of the world. I feel classrooms that teach students responsibility, empathy, and compassion through community; classrooms that give students the message, “We are all here to help each other learn”, are classrooms where learning occurs most frequently and most successfully. When children feel welcomed, when they feel they are an important part of the classroom community, they place greater value on learning.

With this in mind, I place strong value on the community my students and I create in my classroom.