Matthew S.

Smith
6426 Loring Drive; Columbia, MD 21045
443-319-5558; matthewssmith17@gmail.com

Philosophy of Teaching:

In more than five years of teaching, studying, discussing, and writing about secondary
English education, I have come to believe that success comes down to the building and use of
effective relationships: my relationship with the class, my relationship with each individual
student, the relationships established between the students in the class, and the relationships I
foster between my students and the larger world around them. Students may be assigned, and
even complete, the most rigorous English curriculum, but if they have no relationship with the
teacher, then how can they have enough trust to take the teacher's guidance to heart? A student
my feel they are a powerful reader and writer, but how can he or she know how effective such
communication truly is without trusting and interacting with peers who may act as a sounding
board for his or her work? And, ultimately, regardless of how students perform in the classroom,
how can they be expected to be powerful contributors to the world outside of school if they have
no experience dealing with it?
My goal as a secondary English teacher is to develop my students into fully literate
citizens who have the curiosity, creativity, and skills to both ask and answer questions
important to them and who are capable of leading fulfilling professional and personal lives
of their choice in a world that continues to evolve ever more complex and diverse ways to
communicate. I strive to accomplish this feat by (1) teaching students how to use writing as a
tool for discovery, learning, and expression; (2) giving students authentic experience in crafting
clear, structured, and polished compositions that accomplish specific real-world and academic
purposes for specific audiences; (3) encouraging students to build relationships with what they
read and with the world of learning available through books in order to give them the knowledge,
skills, and motivation to become lifelong learners; (4) showing students how to take charge of and
make use of information by reading, analyzing, and evaluating texts in multiple media for specific
purposes; (5) training students how to develop their literacy in 21st Century technologies that
enable them to research, collaborate, refine, and publish in the ever-changing modern world; and
(6) serving as a leader in my classroom, school, and educational community by continuing to act
as a student of my own teaching and an energetic participant in the ongoing national conversation
about best practices for reaching our students. If I can help my students understand the
importance of continuing the build the many relationships I mentioned above and take advantage
of them to give my students experience with the methods, tools, and effects of authentic
composition, then I have gone a long way in guiding them down the path of true literacy.
The most important influences on a student's learning include the student's own, internal
motivation/goals and the rich, educational atmosphere necessary to sustain the willful pursuit of
these goals. As a classroom teacher, this means I place a focus on creating communities,
developing relationships, and delivering instruction that fosters a student's own curiosity and
confidence. My methods for creating such an atmosphere in my classroom include the use of
elements of the writing workshop, the establishment of reading and writing groups, and a focus
on the use of modern digital tools to help students collaborate and share with a wider world. As
often as possible, I have my students making reading and compositional choices on their own,
interacting regularly with their peers, myself, and the larger world around them to get feedback
and advice on their work, and reflecting on how their learning is progressing and how they would
evaluate the choices they have made. To learn at high levels, students increasingly need to
develop their ability to figure out what they need (what questions they have) and how to get it
(what the best answers are). This skill must be overtly taught, modeled, encouraged, and allowed
in the classroom. A classroom where all information is going from teacher to student is not
fostering much high-level critical thinking and reasoning. Information should also pass from
student to teacher, student to student, and student to himself or herself. I strive for just such an
environment in my classroom and believe this all goes toward treating students as the human
beings they are and that we would like them to become.