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TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

“Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world” - Nelson Mandela.5Students need many things to feel safe, secure, and motivated in a school. Some of the most important things come from creating structure in the classroom. I form this structure in many ways by utilizing PBL, collaboration, and variety of books, conferences, backward planning, flexibility, trial and error, reflection, and technology. All of these help me create this positive learning environment. Students thrive here. Students are inspired here. Students are motivated here. Here is where I focus on the classroom becoming student-centered. 

I believe in Project-Based Learning (PBL)3. I use this by questioning more and lecturing less and designing classes that are created around PBL3concepts so that I can be more of a facilitator or coach rather than the one driving the curriculum. PBL3ensures that students are pulling the teacher through the understanding of an umbrella question instead of the teacher pushing students through the curriculum. I believe that by using this in the classroom, it allows students to have choice and voice over what they are producing for the class. This creates variety in the course which then engages students in the process.  When teaching a 7th-grade class, they were asked, “How do perfect societies (Utopia) exist within the world we live in currently?” This was the umbrella question that they were trying to answer over a 4-week process. Each group designed a website to explain their Utopias. Students then were able to decide what they wanted to put into their Utopia. Some students built houses and drew what their people would look like while others focused on laws and rituals. They would design a map, a logo, a coat of arms, or even some decided to make a button that everyone had to wear. Teaching in this manner allows a student to have choice and voice over what is being learned and created. Whenever we give students’ choice and voice, we are giving them power over their learning.

I believe in using group work in my courses because students who can work together through collaboration understand the importance of compromise and advocacy. These are skills that every student needs to be aware of and know what battles to fight for and which ones to walk away from. I arrange groups in many different ways. One way that I arrange groups is based on Marzano’s4research where you put a high, medium high, medium low, and low student together to create a perfect dynamic when working on a project. Students work better with students of different levels when working through a new skill because the high will teach and drive the project whereas the low will ask more questions. The two middle students will work well acting as if they are the fibers between the other two. Grouping students this way makes them interact with each other and fight for what they believe in. Students learning how to advocate for themselves is incredibly powerful because they now own their learning. I also use Kagan1Strategies when working with my students. These strategies help get students outside of their comfort zones by interacting with other students in the classroom. Kagan1is the man behind stand-up/hand-up/pair-up, Think-Pair-Share, Round Robin, and my personal favorite Jot Thought. He designed over 100 ways to engage your students through active movements and groupings within the classroom. 

I believe there is power in reading. Exposure to literature for teens is so significant because we are showing them what the world outside these walls look like, feel like, and act like. I know that the more students learn about different types of concepts from books, the more likely they are to read various kinds of books in the future. I was able to have $1000 in books donated to my classroom last year for my seventh graders. I chose a vast amount of books covering over 15 genres for my English classroom. I did this for two reasons: I wanted to shape the reading experience my students have had thus far, and push it to a new level. I was in a predominantly white school with the only difference between my students was the class system they were born into. They had not read about other types of people from other cultures, and I wanted them to fall in love with different stories of life, love, and struggles that, in many ways, they may never see. I also wanted students to empathize with people that did not look like them, yet many of these characters might someday be someone they would come in contact with.

I believe in conferencing with students. Many ideas come naturally to students when we talk them through, so allowing students to meet with me to discuss their plans will help students clarify and answer their questions. It also gives them a chance to get to know me as a human. I know that instructors can be intimidating just by the nature of how a school is structured. I want to break down that barrier and allow my students to see me as a human. I love being able to conference with my students in any class. In doing so, I can help them flesh their ideas out, and I also help them create new ones. I can challenge them and assure them simultaneously. When I can sit down with one student or a group of students, I can ask them questions to pull out other ideas that maybe they glossed over before. I also can take the time to be taught by the student because many times they have done their own research, and I may be unaware of their findings at that point. Student conferencing is one of the most powerful, free tools we have as instructors that we can use anytime we need to. 

I believe in backward planning, designing lessons by having a clear plan not just to execute but also to ensure my students function at their highest level. When developing any unit, I look at what standards I want them to complete and what I want for a final project, and then I start to go backward in how they will get there. What different things they will need to be able to understand to learn the objectives we began with. As I am designing a class, I start with the end in mind. I also consistently use that end product to keep me on track with where we need to be to reach the finish line.

I believe in being flexible. I know that some students need movement in their day, and the ability to move without punishment. I always try to allow my students to move around. I had a student last year that could sit still for about 3 to 5 minutes at a time, so he would lay on the ground, sit on an exercise ball, walk the back of the room, and sit in his desk throughout the class. He would move multiple times within the 120 min. Class period. I learned so much through this experience. First, I learned that just because he is fidgeting does not mean he is not learning, and second, I learned just because the student is moving does not mean he is distracting the class, by allowing him to move as he was less distracting than me trying to make him sit still. A constant reminder every 3 minutes not to move is way more distracting than allowing him to move around. It was a lesson I needed to learn.

I also believe students need to try new things; they need to a have a safe place to take risks. Students need to try new things to add value to their learning, so they know what does and does not work for them in the future. I also believe that by trying new things we can find new ways to learn and absorb knowledge. My 7th graders had a Utopia Project last year, and one of the things they had to do was build a house that their community could live in. I had a student who brought in many different types of things to work with to help her create a house. She tried foam, silly putty, leaves, but in the end, it was the marshmallows that worked the best. She made an igloo out of these, and it looked perfect. She melted them a bit to get them to stick together and added glitter to make it shimmer. She was able to try something new, and by doing so, she was able to see that by taking a risk she would not usually take she was more successful by her previous errors. I talked with my class constantly that if they tried something new and failed it would be better than not trying at all. As a class, I had them try new things, and take risks they would not normally try to see how failing can be a good thing, that you have to fail to succeed. 

I believe that students need to reflect on the activities they participate in. They need to explain and reflect on what they learned after the assignment has been done. They need to be able to see their growth and examine if they need to do something different next time. Students who reflect on assignments are more likely to change things the next time they are confronted with a task that is similar. I feel that they also need to reflect on group work. Students need time to identify how specific projects went with their groups and took the time notice what they could have done better within the group. These reflections help students aspire for more and help them take ownership of their parts of the project. They can also look for ways to be better prepared for the next time they are in a group and working on a project.

I believe that technology should be capitalized in the classroom. I enjoy utilizing technology in my classroom to discover new ways to process and manipulate the information my students receive in class. I love pairing the material in class with different forms of technology to become the vehicle for how we accomplish tasks. Students are digital natives2; most students love being on their devices, whether that be a phone or computers or iPad, so it is a perfect way to have that happen in the classroom. I use technology to enhance my classes not substituting the material. One technology tool that has become very handy in any school is Spiral, a digital assessment or an interactive tool. I can use it paired with any content material. Students use their laptops and log into the platform, so they can see what everyone in the room is thinking about whatever question or idea I present to them. We can verbally talk about them, but with Spiral you can see their answers as well. I have had many students tell me that Spiral helps them visualize what others are talking about when presented with different ideas. This is one example of how I use technology in my classroom. Technology is something that students will use from now until they die, so we need to find responsible ways to incorporate it into a classroom. We need to teach them how to use technology appropriately so that they can utilize that knowledge for the rest of their lives.  

I believe it takes many pieces to make up an ideal classroom with an ideal teacher. We all fail and have to learn from our mistakes, but I also think that we need to have a plan in place to cultivate our students into great humans. I create this environment by using PBL, collaboration, reading different voices, conferencing, backward planning, being flexible, trying new things, reflection, and last but not least technology. By incorporating each of these into my classroom, I know that I am meeting my students where they are every single day. I am creating a student-centered classroom. I want to leave you with one last thought. “Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.” Paulo Freire5

Works Cited:

1 “Dr. Spencer Kagan's Thoughts on Cooperative Learning.” Edited by Technology, Where Can Students That Don't Speak English Get Help (In The US)?, 2018, www.teach-nology.com/currenttrends/cooperative_learning/kagan/.

2Flanagan, Sara, and Shoffner, Melanie. “Teaching With (out) Technology: Secondary English Teachers and Classroom Technology Use.” Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (CITE Journal), vol. 13, no. 3, 2013, pp. 242–261.

3Larmer, John, et al. PBL Starter Kit: to-the-Point Advice, Tools and Tips for Your First Project in Middle or High School. Buck Institute for Education, 2017.

4Marzano, Robert J. “Instructional Strategies.” Marzano Research | Becoming a Reflective Teacher, 2018, www.marzanoresearch.com/instructional-strategies.

5Schneider, Carri. “14 Quotes to Remind Us We Are Changemakers.” Getting Smart, Getting Smart, 24 Dec. 2016, www.gettingsmart.com/2016/01/14-quotes-to-remind-us-we-are-changemakers/.