Educational Philosphy

The best word to describe my educational philosophy is eclectic. I feel all students can achieve and incorporate many different teaching methods in my classroom to help them. I care about my students and try to reach them and get them to connect to their own learning. I do this by adapting to the learning styles of my students. I make myself available to them before, during and after school to help them succeed. Working together with the student, family, and other teachers in our building are all necessary components to student success. Students must be active learners in order to be successful in school.

I have incorporated a hand's on approach to teaching both math and science in the 7th grade, combining the two subjects whenever possible. I believe students learn by doing things, whether it is building a roller coaster, collecting data, or creating geometric figures. I try to have students manipulate objects and learn through the discovery process to develop their own concepts and answers to questions. I feel that as a teacher I give students opportunities to explore their world and learn about the world around them. They also learn an appreciation for their environment as they do this. Math and science are occurring all the time, in every aspect of our lives, I try to make 7th graders appreciate this and become more aware by teaching them about how their world works.

The support of the family is very important in the success of the child. No child is an island and it does take a strong commitment by the family, student and teacher to insure success in school. Even with this commitment, we must remember that to middle school students, the most important thing is their peers. Socialization is an important aspect of students at this age, I try to work with this allowing them to work cooperatively as often as possible. Students must learn to work with everyone, and be able to contribute their talents to the good of the group. My classroom is usually buzzing with activity, students quickly learn that learning can be fun!