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=__**Introduction**__= Hi, my name is Philip Serpiello and I have created this portfolio as a requirement in my instructional technology course at West Chester University. In this portfolio you should expect to find my philosophy of education, artifacts of example works that I have done, information about professional growth and development, ISTE teacher standards and online resources. When I finish my degree I hope to become a secondary English teacher in a very discussion based setting. Personally, I have grown to love the English language as a means of personally development and expression and I will do my best to give my students the tools required to gain as much from the English as I have.

=__Philosophy of Education__= When I think about the deepest roots of my educational philosophy one word comes to mind, students. Everything else that is related to education is very important, but I believe that its level of importance is relative to its relation to the student. If we, as educators, can properly educate students as individuals then the society that surrounds will naturally benefit as a whole. As teachers, we must realize that we are not only teaching students about the academic subjects that we have been trained to teach, but we are also teaching ourselves and without intention. Whether we like it or not, students naturally learn from our ethos. This is why we must always live what we believe; we must exert confidence, creativeness, and good morals. As Dr. Paul Morgan once stated, students’ minds are like seeds and in order to help them grow we must provide them with the many factors that they need to grow healthily. This helps to show the importance of the well roundedness that a teacher must display. A good teacher is a teacher at all times, as well as a student, inside and outside of the classroom. They must love and be engaged in teaching as a lifestyle; they must be true to what they are doing. Only then can they truthfully engage students and create an environment that promotes authentic learning. As a teacher must be well-rounded himself/herself, I believe that the subjects that he/she teaches must be well rounded as well. Students should be exposed to as many subject areas as possible so that they can discover what makes their interest peak. The object is to help them discover who they are and for them to gain a wealth of self-knowledge. I do believe that a student must have a fundamental knowledge of math, reading and writing because they are necessary for survival in society, but every student is different and we must make room for them to discover their interests and what they are naturally drawn towards. This can help tremendously in creating the availability of an authentic learning environment for every student, especially aided by a quality teacher. We must expand our horizons beyond the traditional views of what should be taught in school because knowledge of subjects such a music, the arts, nature and carpentry can be just as useful and often times help students to perform better in the traditional subjects. For example, basic knowledge of carpentry can be utilized to apply a wealth of math skills, be used by students for the rest of their lives in their own homes and may be a career path for some students. We must have something that appeals to every student’s needs and desires. Regarding the physical setting in which education should be performed; I think that there should once again be many variations to allow for the diversity among the students and the differences in their personalities. In the classroom setting, there should be many bright colors and encouraging slogans on the walls at all levels of education. This helps to set a mood of excitement and lightness among the students. We want our students to be in the best mindset possible when we are teaching in order to avoid placing any negative association between them and learning. This is one reason that taking students outside of the classroom is very useful as well. Students often enjoy getting outside of the classroom setting and being exposed to the natural world around them, museums, musical performances, and job sites. These types of settings help to engage students and can also solidify knowledge that is taught in the classroom. Among the population of students, schools should seek diversity. The world that we live in is filled with people that come from many different ethnic, religious, sexual and socio-economical backgrounds. Students will be dealing with people from all different backgrounds throughout their entire lives, it is important to expose them to this human diversity at an early stage to help them understand that all people are not the same and although we may not always agree with other peoples beliefs or lifestyles we must accept them as they are. Also, diversity often ignites interest in people to discover more about other cultures, their own culture, various religions and the world around us as a whole. This promotes authentic learning, and a drive to gain self-knowledge. As for funding, this is probably one of the most controversial and essential aspects of the educational system. Without adequate funding it is impossible for any school to operate on the level that is expected or desired. To further my own knowledge of this subject I have spoken thoroughly with my father, James Serpiello, a long time educator and manager/principal of both public and parochial schools. Through his extensive knowledge of school funding he believes that it is important to seek funding from many different sources because you can never have enough funding and usually have too little. You must begin by discovering what funding that you can obtain from the government on the city, state and federal levels. For additional funding there are many other places to search. One possible funding source available comes from businesses such as Walmart and Target who will help to fund after school programs or will provide money for equipment. Along with their aide, these businesses do expect a slight amount of advertising and commercialism but as my father agrees and Juliet B. Schor would most definitely not, this is a small price to pay for the support that these businesses are providing for the educational system. Another quality source of funding that he suggests are non-profit organizations that will run free programs at the school. For example, there is a faith-based organization that runs a free after school mentoring program at his current school. Although these programs do not give the school actual money, they open up funds that would have been spent on a program to be useful in another area. Fundraisers such as candy sales can also be helpful and even asking companies for old equipment. One teacher at my father’s school wrote to a computer company and they sent her twenty brand new computers that the company would have thrown away otherwise. When it comes down to it, we must search for funding from every possible source because any amount of extra funding helps and we can never be sure who is willing to help unless we ask. Overall, I believe to run a successful educational system it must be one that is student centered. The needs, interests and desires of the students are what educators must learn to empathize with if they wish to engage students in real, authentic education. We must appeal to them if we want them to be interested. I believe that Robert L. Fried would agree with this philosophy because the diversity of subject and instruction could be very effective in swaying students from playing the game of school. That is why I find that diversity in all aspects of education is the key ingredient to success. The world is diverse and so must our educational system be.