Teaching Philosophy 2013
I am a teacher because I have the utmost respect for my students, their families, and their individual backgrounds. Every decision that I make regarding their social, emotional, and academic learning is a result of my respect for them. For these reasons, I do my best to learn from each student. I can only begin to teach once they have taught me how best to teach them.
I learn from my students by observing and listening to them in various contexts. I listen as they interact with their families, their friends, and their peers in the room. I watch how they respond to one another and how they respond to new information. I also pay close attention to the information that they share with me. As we talk academically and socially, I learn about the kinds of thinkers and learners that are in my classroom. This is how I begin to see each student as an individual. By taking time to observe how my students respond to different things, I learn how best to make my teaching practices equitable for my students and their families.
Based on my personal experiences, I believe that equity and social justice become an issue whenever there is a situation that allows for certain individuals to be in the “know” and others to be left behind or in the dark. After moving to a middle class neighborhood at the age of 8 and attending a predominately white elementary school, I often felt that there were several secrets that I was not let in on. I usually experienced this in the classroom whenever teachers would begin a new unit and everyone seemed to be starting on the same page with the same understanding except for me. I usually felt like I was already behind and I had no idea how to fix it or why I felt that way.
To prevent this from happening to my own students, I design lessons with my students in mind. I always introduce a lesson by building prior knowledge or allowing my students to share what they already know about a specific topic. For example, for a lesson sequence about static electricity, my students shared several experiences with one another about times when they were shocked after touching another person or object. This was an informal discussion that allowed for dramatic accounts of personal stories, student inquiry about what might be causing the shocks, a discussion of incoming academic vocabulary, and the use of differentiated sentence frames for students who were English Language Learners. This front-loading of content allows me to get a sense of the prior knowledge that I need to build for my students as well as assessing the knowledge that they already have concerning a topic. After learning from my students in this instance, I was able to reevaluate my initial lesson sequences and adjust my plans according to student understanding.
I then plan for lessons that accommodate the different learning styles in my classroom. I do this so that there are several avenues for students to access information as well as demonstrate their understanding of material. I allot specific time for partner and table talks for oral practice with academic language, whole group discussions, student and teacher demonstrations, visuals drawn on poster boards, graphic organizers, hands on experiments and activities, differentiated note-taking handouts according to ELL, IEP, and 504 plans, guided focus questions that allow children to practice using academic language through writing, and opportunities for students to share their knowledge with others.
By using SDAIE strategies such as the ones listed above I am able to support my students in their learning. I have learned throughout my year of student teaching that my choices for instruction must be those that give my students agency and authority. This means that after I provide several opportunities for my students to access academic content, I will also allow them to apply this knowledge to the real world. After a unit on the different type of electrical circuits, my fourth grade students were to work in groups to create posters that would explain to me and my master teacher how to be safe when using electricity and the best type of circuit to use within our “pretend” new homes. To give the activity context, I told them that they were each electricians and their job was to present this information to customers who had just moved into their own apartment or home. The activity gave my students agency and authority because they could now go out and share this information with their families, friends, and their communities. The new knowledge did not just sit with them in the classroom, but it became relevant to their everyday lives.
To make their learning even more relevant, I use technology in my teaching practices as well. The awesome aspect about technology is the fact that it has the potential to preserve student thinking, interaction, and academic growth as they continue their education. Using technology in my lessons gives students an interactive and intellectually stimulating experience during instruction that will build their technological strengths. I have witnessed and used promethean boards, interactive physical activity programs, animation cameras, ipads, ipods, and laptops in my host classrooms. For example, in a fifth grade class that I taught during the summer, my students created a documentary that contributed to the overall theme of our program: All Champions were once Beginners. The class documentary was burned onto a CD so that all of the students in the class could remember their hard work and their time spent together creating the project. Other ways that I allow students to capture their learning is by allowing students to create PowerPoint presentations, and digital portfolios of topics that are of interest to them. By incorporating technology into my teaching, I am giving my students the opportunity to reflect on and communicate their learning through multiple lenses.
This style of instruction comes from my understanding of what I think is the best pedagogical practice: partnership. This practice grounds my teaching because it allows me to collaborate with my students and interact with them on a more personal level. When my students and I engage with one another as partners in their learning, I am able to be transparent with them. I take a metacognitive approach when we do whole class readings, think about focus questions, and complete activities. This allows me to model my thought process for how I learn new information and motivate my students to think about how they are thinking and learning new information. This is a powerful practice because it further allows my students to be in the “know.” They can collaborate with their peers, learn new ways of thinking, and also collaborate with me. The type of community that forms as we learn together is one that supports one another, grows together, and motivates each other throughout year.
I constantly seek feedback and advice from my fellow colleagues, master teachers, and peers. I attend conferences and professional development seminars to stay connected with innovative practices of our time. I stay connected to support my students.
I learn from my students by observing and listening to them in various contexts. I listen as they interact with their families, their friends, and their peers in the room. I watch how they respond to one another and how they respond to new information. I also pay close attention to the information that they share with me. As we talk academically and socially, I learn about the kinds of thinkers and learners that are in my classroom. This is how I begin to see each student as an individual. By taking time to observe how my students respond to different things, I learn how best to make my teaching practices equitable for my students and their families.
Based on my personal experiences, I believe that equity and social justice become an issue whenever there is a situation that allows for certain individuals to be in the “know” and others to be left behind or in the dark. After moving to a middle class neighborhood at the age of 8 and attending a predominately white elementary school, I often felt that there were several secrets that I was not let in on. I usually experienced this in the classroom whenever teachers would begin a new unit and everyone seemed to be starting on the same page with the same understanding except for me. I usually felt like I was already behind and I had no idea how to fix it or why I felt that way.
To prevent this from happening to my own students, I design lessons with my students in mind. I always introduce a lesson by building prior knowledge or allowing my students to share what they already know about a specific topic. For example, for a lesson sequence about static electricity, my students shared several experiences with one another about times when they were shocked after touching another person or object. This was an informal discussion that allowed for dramatic accounts of personal stories, student inquiry about what might be causing the shocks, a discussion of incoming academic vocabulary, and the use of differentiated sentence frames for students who were English Language Learners. This front-loading of content allows me to get a sense of the prior knowledge that I need to build for my students as well as assessing the knowledge that they already have concerning a topic. After learning from my students in this instance, I was able to reevaluate my initial lesson sequences and adjust my plans according to student understanding.
I then plan for lessons that accommodate the different learning styles in my classroom. I do this so that there are several avenues for students to access information as well as demonstrate their understanding of material. I allot specific time for partner and table talks for oral practice with academic language, whole group discussions, student and teacher demonstrations, visuals drawn on poster boards, graphic organizers, hands on experiments and activities, differentiated note-taking handouts according to ELL, IEP, and 504 plans, guided focus questions that allow children to practice using academic language through writing, and opportunities for students to share their knowledge with others.
By using SDAIE strategies such as the ones listed above I am able to support my students in their learning. I have learned throughout my year of student teaching that my choices for instruction must be those that give my students agency and authority. This means that after I provide several opportunities for my students to access academic content, I will also allow them to apply this knowledge to the real world. After a unit on the different type of electrical circuits, my fourth grade students were to work in groups to create posters that would explain to me and my master teacher how to be safe when using electricity and the best type of circuit to use within our “pretend” new homes. To give the activity context, I told them that they were each electricians and their job was to present this information to customers who had just moved into their own apartment or home. The activity gave my students agency and authority because they could now go out and share this information with their families, friends, and their communities. The new knowledge did not just sit with them in the classroom, but it became relevant to their everyday lives.
To make their learning even more relevant, I use technology in my teaching practices as well. The awesome aspect about technology is the fact that it has the potential to preserve student thinking, interaction, and academic growth as they continue their education. Using technology in my lessons gives students an interactive and intellectually stimulating experience during instruction that will build their technological strengths. I have witnessed and used promethean boards, interactive physical activity programs, animation cameras, ipads, ipods, and laptops in my host classrooms. For example, in a fifth grade class that I taught during the summer, my students created a documentary that contributed to the overall theme of our program: All Champions were once Beginners. The class documentary was burned onto a CD so that all of the students in the class could remember their hard work and their time spent together creating the project. Other ways that I allow students to capture their learning is by allowing students to create PowerPoint presentations, and digital portfolios of topics that are of interest to them. By incorporating technology into my teaching, I am giving my students the opportunity to reflect on and communicate their learning through multiple lenses.
This style of instruction comes from my understanding of what I think is the best pedagogical practice: partnership. This practice grounds my teaching because it allows me to collaborate with my students and interact with them on a more personal level. When my students and I engage with one another as partners in their learning, I am able to be transparent with them. I take a metacognitive approach when we do whole class readings, think about focus questions, and complete activities. This allows me to model my thought process for how I learn new information and motivate my students to think about how they are thinking and learning new information. This is a powerful practice because it further allows my students to be in the “know.” They can collaborate with their peers, learn new ways of thinking, and also collaborate with me. The type of community that forms as we learn together is one that supports one another, grows together, and motivates each other throughout year.
I constantly seek feedback and advice from my fellow colleagues, master teachers, and peers. I attend conferences and professional development seminars to stay connected with innovative practices of our time. I stay connected to support my students.