Activity

Below you'll find a selection of websites and documents with questions to stimulate your brainstorming. Some have more, and some have fewer, but they're all organized a little differently. Find one that 'feels right'. Answer whatever seems pertinent. Identify themes that you want to develop in your first draft. You can work on your own or with a partner-interviewer who will help you think aloud and explain yourself more clearly. (Be sure to decide who will record your answers and how.) Gather your evidence. Do your research. Make note of positive and not-so- positive experiences you can use to show what you do now that works. what you've learned over the years, and what you still want to work on.

You can record your thoughts organically using a tool like Coggle, follow the order in the list, or create a table with general categories down the left and heading such as what I do, how I do it, results, and supporting evidence or research across the top. 

Choosing a list is not required. You may already a rough idea of what you want to say in which case you can develop a mind map or outline instead. 

Sources of Questions

U. of Minnesota (Tab 2): “2 ways to organize your draft”. From https://cei.umn.edu/writing-your-teaching-philosophy

Katherine Kearns & Carol Sullivan (Indiana U., 2012, pp.139-141): 3 super tables with guiding questions (#2), formulas to structure your writing (#3), and exercises to get the writing started (#4). From https://www.physiology.org/doi/pdf/10.1152/advan.00123.2010

U. of Calgary: 4 part structure -- “beliefs, strategies, impact and goals”. From  http://connections.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2015/09/28/writing-a-teaching-philosophy-statement/

HASTAC: 5 part structure -- “introspection, impact, content, methods, and assessment”. From https://www.hastac.org/blogs/danicasavonick/2016/04/12/five-principles-dynamite-teaching-statement