Philosophy | My Site 1

Teaching Philosophies and Values

I believe in treating students with kindness and using inclusive language and practices to create a productive and enjoyable class culture.

I integrate all 3-Dimensions of the NGSS into my instruction to equip students with the knowledge (CCCs and DCIs) as well as the skills (SEPs) to learn and participate in science.
I believe students should take an active role in science during class because it is more engaging.
I structure class activities so that students are frequently collaborating to make sense of science concepts, to use scientific and engineering practices, and to practice communicating their ideas about science.
I endeavor to connect my curriculum to engaging and relevant scientific phenomenon to hold students' interest and provide them with a more authentic scientific experience.

I endeavor to provide students with opportunities to improve their literacy skills by writing and aligning instruction with daily collaborative, interpretive, and productive language objectives.

I incorporate aspects of civics into my lessons whenever I can, challenging students to understand how scientific concepts and phenomena relate to their own lives. I stress this because as adults, all of these students will face scientific information and debate, ethical and political issues, understanding these concepts and their interconnectedness will help students make informed decisions as voters and adults.

In my instruction, I offer students numerous opportunities to explicitly add, to and revise, their ideas as they learn more about a topic or concept. This typically looks like asking students to share their initial ideas on a topic in writing or by creating a labeled diagram and then providing students opportunities to revisit this task as they learn. I do this to give students an authentic scientific experience and to emphasize the value of critically examining our beliefs as we learn and grow.

I also emphasize the value of revising by offering students opportunities to retake assessments, similar in difficulty and format to the original, at no loss of points. I want to communicate to students who take the initiative to improve their understanding and assessment grade that hard work does not go unnoticed, or unvalued, just because they did not have the understanding or ability to perform on the initial assessment the way they can later.