Teaching Philosophy

 My goal as a teacher is to provide a strong foundation for learning and to spark students’ enthusiasm for science.  Teaching with passion and enthusiasm connects students to their own passion for learning and science. To accomplish this, it is important to consider different teaching strategies to match students' needs. Students bring widely differently knowledge and experiences to the classroom, as well as different levels of maturity, interest, and motivation.  Equity and differentiation are vital in the classroom to meet the needs of all students. My goal is to make course materials accessible to all students; therefore each lesson has to accommodate the different backgrounds and learning preferences of the students. Understanding both the learning style of individual learners and the cultural diversity of the class/group helps implement appropriate concrete examples into my lessons. Because students learn in different ways, I try to assess students in multiple ways, both formatively and summative. Depending on the task, I allow them to decide how they can best show me their understanding. These assessments range from projects, portfolios, presentations, essays, to traditional exams.

 I try to help students tap into their prior knowledge, apply it to the new content, and use that knowledge as a base on which to build a greater understanding of more complex material. I believe that learning requires deep understanding comes with investigating and discovering, and actively applying the new knowledge in creative and meaningful ways.  I integrate inquiry-based instruction in my classroom so that my students can discover scientific phenomena through investigations and hands-on labs.  Scientific inquiry allows students to study the natural world and create explanations and develop understanding of scientific ideas. 

 I believe that learning can be fun and engaging, and that students who are active participants learn much more than those whose participation is passive. I want my students to be actively involved, thinking and questioning the material presented by me or their peers. A positive and safe learning environment is necessary to foster student participation and engagement.  I make it my goal to get to know my students and show genuine interest in their lives both in and out the classroom. If students are comfortable talking to each other and expressing their opinions and ideas, they will be more encouraged to participate in class discussions and become active learners.