About Me

Howdy, all!

My name is J Lander and, if you are reading this, I assume your student is a student of mine and I'm proud to know that! I look forward to getting to know your student and you as we work together throughout the year. Since I will be spending so much time with your student, I feel it is also important for you to know a little bit about me. Feel free to read below and, if you have any other questions about me, please don't hesitate to ask!


The Basics

  • Hometown: Danbury, Texas (population about 1800)
  • Time in Bryan: 6 years -- I married a local! (Bryan Viking Class of 2012)
  • Time at Davila: 3 years with many more to come!

My Education

  • Danbury High School Class of 2012
  • B.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies from Texas A&M University (2016)
  • M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction from Texas A&M University (2017)

My Hobbies & Interests

  • Woodworking -- mostly as a hobby. I enjoy making wooden signs and any number of planters and other decorations for my garden.
  • Gardening
  • Listening to music -- mostly Texas Country, 90's alternative rock, and classic rock
  • Reading -- I am almost always in the middle of a book and I pick a new one up as soon as I finish one!

Why Do I Teach?

  • I didn't decide I wanted to be a teacher until I was in my freshman year at Texas A&M. Before I decided to become a teacher, I knew there were 3 things I wanted from a career. These 3 things are:
    • I want to work in a career where I can be viewed as a professional
    • I want to work in a career where I am in a position to help others
    • I want to work in a career where I can be social
  • So, I reflected and prayed on those 3 things and I realized that the best profession for me to be able to do those 3 things is to be a teacher. Since the day I decided that, I haven't looked back!

My Teaching Philosophy

The classroom environment should be one of ordered engagement. There should be a strong structure and all procedures must be explicitly taught to students and they should meet the needs of all students. Students can’t be expected to sit still all day – they should be allowed to move around when they need to but will still know they are expected to follow instruction.

The teacher’s role is one of expert, mentor, and guide. The teacher should be recognized as the authority when circumstances require an authority but should be more inclined to lead students to their conclusions rather than “give” them all their decisions.

Like the classroom environment, lesson plans should be structured and flexible. The teacher should be comfortable amending parts of the lesson plan when it is necessary to reach students. When an assignment requires revision or review, the lesson plan can be sacrificed to ensure students understand the content being presented. Lesson plans should include specific measures for students requiring accommodations and modifications but the teacher should not feel bound by these plans; rather, teachers should be prepared to accommodate different learning styles and backgrounds when students require it.

Clear expectations must always be given by the teacher and met by the students, for all activities, to maintain a healthy classroom environment. The aim of all classroom rules and procedures should be to prepare students to be productive citizens in life after school. For this reason, students should be involved in creating classroom rules and in some decision making processes. The teacher is the ultimate authority in the classroom but students need to learn what it means to have responsibility and to be a part of a system greater than any one of them. I want my students to feel ownership in their classroom because this leads to ownership of their successes.

Much emphasis should be put on informal evaluations. Informal evaluation can be a great tool that helps teachers see the progress their students are making, not just if they’ve reached a certain end-point. When at all possible, students should have to explain their learning, not just regurgitate it on an assessment. Students should be given many opportunities to feel successful; some students are going to do better on daily work and in situational evaluations than they will on high-stakes tests. However, when major exams and evaluations are given, all students must be held accountable to a high standard.

Teachers should use a variety of instructional strategies when working with students. The goal of instruction should be student understanding, not just knowledge of concepts. Instruction should reinforce the concepts of problem solving (understanding the problem, creating a plan, carrying out the plan, and looking back to reflect on the process) to students. New learning should be connected to previous learning whenever possible; the more students can connect new learning to previous learning (and to their own lives), the more likely students are to remain actively engaged and interested in the content. Ideally, every lesson should be an integrated lesson – all subjects should be brought to work in harmony with one another in the classroom.