Educational Philosophy

I believe that the mind is a powerful tool and in order for my students to be successful in life, I must teach them to use that tool well. Learning to think, really think, encompasses many skills. Although our society seems to value the person who is able to retain large amounts of information, knowing how to get to that information is as important as being able to memorize it. I must acknowledge, though, that memorization in and of itself, is one part of learning to use our minds well.

As a teacher, I believe that it is my job to nurture, challenge and strengthen my students through a wide variety of activities. Reading, researching, creating, questioning, listening, analyzing, communicating, and being brave enough to try something new - all of these aspects are a part of the life-long love of learning. And all are skills necessary to becoming a whole, successful adult. So, for me, the classroom should be a safe place to practice and hone these skills for the the present and the future.

Sample Lesson Plan

Lesson plans for me vary widely depending on the subject I am teaching. Rather than type a very specific lesson plan, I am going to list a basic outline of the types of things that I might do in either a math class or a science classe. Note: Our school is on block scheduling, and so these are outlines of what an 80 minute period might look like.

Math

* Turn in Homework

* Daily Quiz (1 - 10 problems on the board) - Reviews previous material or sets up the day's lesson. Gets students focused on class immediately. While students are doing quiz, I am checking over homework for completeness.

* Hand in Quiz

* Go over quiz problems - Students get immediate feedback.

* Hand back homework - Go over answers, if necessary. Answer questions or have students put problems on the board.

* Daily Lesson - This may be a lecture or a combination of a lecture/hands-on activity introducing new material.

* Classroom Practice - Remember those classroom exercises in the math book? With an 80 minute period, you can actually use them.

* Go over classroom practice - Catch the problems before they go home and practice them incorrectly.

* Assign Homework - If there is time, students get the rest of the period to work on their assignment.

 

Science 9

* Start the day with a review quiz or going over homework.

** Lesson introducing new material.

** Lab activity reinforcing material

OR

** Do a discovery-oriented activity

** Lesson/Discussion that ties into the discovery activity

* Give students a choice of working on a number of different things: vocab review or other homework assignments, writing or rewriting a lab report or project, studying, doing research in the library or on the net or collecting & analyzing data, to name just a few. (There are always large projects in process at any given time.)