Teaching Philosophy
I believe that teaching is like a puzzle, the student and teacher need to do work to fit together perfectly. The pieces cannot be forced together, but must be matched with the right pieces. If all the pieces match up just right, then something interesting and beautiful is created. Each student’s learning experience is dynamic and students respond differently to all styles of teaching. It takes a lot of work to create that beautiful moment when a teacher teaches something and the student has that “ah-ha” moment. It is one of my goals as a teacher to discover the best possible way to teach all my students, so that they are achieving at or above their grade level. I want to mutually grow with my students. It is also one of my goals to prepare the student for thinking above and beyond a standardized online test. As in Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences theory, each student has specific traits that are linked to different intelligences. I believe it is my job to tap into those traits so that the initial learning can take place. After the initial learning takes place, I believe I should bring the students to a higher understanding through reasoning and creation, which requires a deeper understanding of each individual’s best traits. Technology and the application of Gardener’s Multiple Intelligences is the perfect recipe to tapping into those traits for higher levels of learning. With technology, all forms of intelligences can be reached through construction, simulation, and reproduction. Technology lets the classroom environment be more than the desks, chairs, chalk boards and books. I believe that with a strong diversity of students and the use of technology, a classroom can be a different adventure every day. Every day teaching to me is about:
1. Discovering the best way to teach to all my students.
2. Having students achieve above or beyond standardize testing goals.
3. Tapping into the individual strengths of my students so learning is interesting to them.
In my classroom, I will be as much as a listener as a speaker. I cannot talk all day and expect students to learn, my teaching instruction is centered on conversations. Through facilitated conversations, students may bring each other to closer to understanding concepts much quicker than I can. Through Vgotsky’s zone of proximal development theory, students may discuss a concept with each other in a way that they better understand. When students are struggling, I will help communicate these deficiencies to parents and ask that we work on these skills together by providing extra practice at home or with the parents after school. These conversations with parents may help me understand better how to reach out to a struggling student, so as a teacher I can adapt to that student’s needs. I will adapt to the wide range of diversity presented to me. If a student speaks a second language, I will find a common level of communication and learn words that are closely related both to their native language and English. I can also communicate through pictures, for example, I will create cue cards for regular activities like “Pull out your Science Journal” and “time to go to lunch”.
In my classroom, I will use interactivity for instruction. If I know that many of my students are musical learners, I will help them create silly songs for vocabulary, so they will never be able to get the song out of their head. If my students are spatial learners, we will create comics and illustration in our subject journals. When I need to check if students are learning concepts I will use student response systems to check for understanding. I will create interactive trivia games to review terms or at-the-board races for practicing skills. My students will check for understanding through activities like simulating everyday actions that require them to know simple addition. My students will pretend to plan a field trip with a set budget, they will simulate what it is like to use math in the real world. I will create online applications for assessment. With online tools I can create tests that mimic standardize assessment or find fun practice through the thousands of online assessments already in existence. Students will have opportunities to reproduce my assessments so that I know they truly understand the concepts we are learning. These online assessments will be helpful in ensuring that students can be comfortable with deconstructing concepts that they have learned. Also, by utilizing group work in any of these examples I will again be presenting my students with opportunities to develop conversations with each other. These conversations will facilitate peer-to-peer learning opportunities, which increases both the students understanding and comprehension. Students with strong interpersonal skills will have opportunities to share in the knowledge of others through conversation and interpretation. All these activities can be expanded on or adapted by using current technology. Smart boards, tablets, video editing software, and online applications create interactivity on every lesson. From taking a song about Greatest Common Factors and turning it into a music video, to creating our own library of non-fiction literature about the Civil War. Technology coupled to diverse learning opportunities always births innovation.
I strongly believe that no two students learn the same way. As a late bloomer in elementary school I remember vividly why I had a slow start. I had teachers that taught from a textbook and handed out worksheets. I never took interest in those things, so I did not take interest in learning. Once a teacher started making learning interesting, my desire to learn increased. I had a teacher that created a learning experience that was unique by fostering my multiple intelligences, then applying it to the same goal as the rest of my class. Students today need a special teacher who finds ways to instruct, check for understanding and assess every student differently so that when standardized tests are administered, growth is always measured. I know that technology and catering to student’s individual intelligences is the key to getting students interested in learning. Once they are interested, then test scores will be reflected positively. I know from the time I started to be invested in my own education to where I am today, teachers that were successful customized my learning experience. These teachers provided opportunities for me to learn and teach my peers. They provided me with opportunities to create and break down concepts so that I made the learning experience my own. They also gave me a deeper understanding of what it takes to excel in my life and discover that learning is a puzzle. They gave me the border pieces, now I have the tools to fill in the rest of the puzzle. The image I create every time I learn something new is a gift I hope to share through tapping into individual learner’s traits and using technology to adapt so that success is always found.
1. Discovering the best way to teach to all my students.
2. Having students achieve above or beyond standardize testing goals.
3. Tapping into the individual strengths of my students so learning is interesting to them.
In my classroom, I will be as much as a listener as a speaker. I cannot talk all day and expect students to learn, my teaching instruction is centered on conversations. Through facilitated conversations, students may bring each other to closer to understanding concepts much quicker than I can. Through Vgotsky’s zone of proximal development theory, students may discuss a concept with each other in a way that they better understand. When students are struggling, I will help communicate these deficiencies to parents and ask that we work on these skills together by providing extra practice at home or with the parents after school. These conversations with parents may help me understand better how to reach out to a struggling student, so as a teacher I can adapt to that student’s needs. I will adapt to the wide range of diversity presented to me. If a student speaks a second language, I will find a common level of communication and learn words that are closely related both to their native language and English. I can also communicate through pictures, for example, I will create cue cards for regular activities like “Pull out your Science Journal” and “time to go to lunch”.
In my classroom, I will use interactivity for instruction. If I know that many of my students are musical learners, I will help them create silly songs for vocabulary, so they will never be able to get the song out of their head. If my students are spatial learners, we will create comics and illustration in our subject journals. When I need to check if students are learning concepts I will use student response systems to check for understanding. I will create interactive trivia games to review terms or at-the-board races for practicing skills. My students will check for understanding through activities like simulating everyday actions that require them to know simple addition. My students will pretend to plan a field trip with a set budget, they will simulate what it is like to use math in the real world. I will create online applications for assessment. With online tools I can create tests that mimic standardize assessment or find fun practice through the thousands of online assessments already in existence. Students will have opportunities to reproduce my assessments so that I know they truly understand the concepts we are learning. These online assessments will be helpful in ensuring that students can be comfortable with deconstructing concepts that they have learned. Also, by utilizing group work in any of these examples I will again be presenting my students with opportunities to develop conversations with each other. These conversations will facilitate peer-to-peer learning opportunities, which increases both the students understanding and comprehension. Students with strong interpersonal skills will have opportunities to share in the knowledge of others through conversation and interpretation. All these activities can be expanded on or adapted by using current technology. Smart boards, tablets, video editing software, and online applications create interactivity on every lesson. From taking a song about Greatest Common Factors and turning it into a music video, to creating our own library of non-fiction literature about the Civil War. Technology coupled to diverse learning opportunities always births innovation.
I strongly believe that no two students learn the same way. As a late bloomer in elementary school I remember vividly why I had a slow start. I had teachers that taught from a textbook and handed out worksheets. I never took interest in those things, so I did not take interest in learning. Once a teacher started making learning interesting, my desire to learn increased. I had a teacher that created a learning experience that was unique by fostering my multiple intelligences, then applying it to the same goal as the rest of my class. Students today need a special teacher who finds ways to instruct, check for understanding and assess every student differently so that when standardized tests are administered, growth is always measured. I know that technology and catering to student’s individual intelligences is the key to getting students interested in learning. Once they are interested, then test scores will be reflected positively. I know from the time I started to be invested in my own education to where I am today, teachers that were successful customized my learning experience. These teachers provided opportunities for me to learn and teach my peers. They provided me with opportunities to create and break down concepts so that I made the learning experience my own. They also gave me a deeper understanding of what it takes to excel in my life and discover that learning is a puzzle. They gave me the border pieces, now I have the tools to fill in the rest of the puzzle. The image I create every time I learn something new is a gift I hope to share through tapping into individual learner’s traits and using technology to adapt so that success is always found.