As a teacher, I am, myself, a life-long learner. As such, I want meaningful learning experiences that engage me in critical and creative thinking. I want to always be moving toward mastery while understanding the importance of making and learning from mistakes. It is with those practices as a learner that I practice as a teacher.
My theories that guide my teaching practices include:
• Anyone can learn with enough dedication and effort
• As a teacher, my place in the classroom is to lay a few bread crumbs and let them move forward on their own
• I embrace a lot of teaching strategies to engage learning in the classroom—some work/some don’t work
• I am adaptable to what my students need and how to start them going there
• Each student comes to me as an individual learner with their own story, experiences, and needs. I want to explore that to see where they are at as people and what they bring to the classroom
Assessment of these methods requires a lot of self-reflection on the students' part. This self- reflection comes in these forms:
• One minute papers (opening of class)/Exit slips (closing of the class)
• Journals
• Pauses/silences
Also, as a teacher, I am actively engaged with each learner so I can gauge the level of understanding as it changes. I personally am not a fan of memorization and tests, but thinking and doing and metacognition.
As a lifelong learner I always try to stay abreast of new thoughts and philosophies to make me better in my own mastery. These include:
• Participating in professional development as much as possible (e.g., PLCs, Lily Conference)
• Continuing my education by taking classes at EKU
• Reading books, periodicals and professional journals
Some say to teach is to love. Others say teaching touches the future. For me, I have always had an admiration for teachers as early as I can remember. While other kids were dreaming of being an astronaut or a movie star, I was dreaming of being a teacher. What’s a more noble position to embrace?
“I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.”
-Lily Tomlin
My theories that guide my teaching practices include:
• Anyone can learn with enough dedication and effort
• As a teacher, my place in the classroom is to lay a few bread crumbs and let them move forward on their own
• I embrace a lot of teaching strategies to engage learning in the classroom—some work/some don’t work
• I am adaptable to what my students need and how to start them going there
• Each student comes to me as an individual learner with their own story, experiences, and needs. I want to explore that to see where they are at as people and what they bring to the classroom
Assessment of these methods requires a lot of self-reflection on the students' part. This self- reflection comes in these forms:
• One minute papers (opening of class)/Exit slips (closing of the class)
• Journals
• Pauses/silences
Also, as a teacher, I am actively engaged with each learner so I can gauge the level of understanding as it changes. I personally am not a fan of memorization and tests, but thinking and doing and metacognition.
As a lifelong learner I always try to stay abreast of new thoughts and philosophies to make me better in my own mastery. These include:
• Participating in professional development as much as possible (e.g., PLCs, Lily Conference)
• Continuing my education by taking classes at EKU
• Reading books, periodicals and professional journals
Some say to teach is to love. Others say teaching touches the future. For me, I have always had an admiration for teachers as early as I can remember. While other kids were dreaming of being an astronaut or a movie star, I was dreaming of being a teacher. What’s a more noble position to embrace?
“I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.”
-Lily Tomlin