Teaching Philosophy

Middle school students primarily have one job. To be a student. They should follow the advice of Martin Luther King about their job. Given all the above, it is also important that students have fun. Studies have proven that top students calendar time to have fun. Make certain you schedule time in your week to do things you love! Emphasis is placed on working hard in a smart manner!

Positive Classroom Culture

I work to create a classroom that feels welcoming, safe, nurturing and fun so that students feel positive about learning. Why? A good environment influences motivation, concentration, memory and attitude. This makes my students more willing to engage with me, the material and one another.

How will I do this?

• Ensuring psychological safety

• Encouraging student value, acceptance and a sense of belonging to a group

• Creating a sense of purpose

• Building an inquisitive environment

• Establishing routines

• Setting rules and expectations

• Celebrating Student Success

• Providing both challenge and support

• Integrating teaching with social and emotional learning

Long Range Classroom Goals:

What do you want students to be able to know and do at the end of the year that they may not know or be able to do now? What knowledge, processes, attitudes, behaviors, or traits do you hope to instill in your students? What do you want students to remember about their year with you?

- Empower students to make decisions

- Work cooperatively in groups (most students are surprised to find out that geese work better as a team then their team in class) and to contribute to their group

- Plan long-range projects (for example, developing the best water filtration system for a given scenario or preparing for a math test by updating your Math Data Notebook) and bring them to completion while meeting goals.

- Speak in front of others with confidence and style

- Stay focused on and bring written tasks, multi-step problems to completion

All students meet or exceed state level goals

Build experiential, applied and expeditionary thinking

Research based techniques are needed to create an experiential, applied and expeditionary environment. Research based techniques are focused around these four pillars and ideally providing students choices on how to own their learning:

1. Collaboration

2. Communication

3. Critical Thinking

4. Creativity

Building on these 4 pillars innovation zones will be developed for those students that have mastered math concepts as proven by test grades, CAASP test scores and completion of high school ready math work.

The methodology (group work, team taught, experiential, applied, expeditionary) of technology and the content (literacy, numeracy) of math/education must be married. The content of technology does not drive teaching pedagogy. This means technology and the methods used to implement a technology should not drive decisions.

The key technology methodologies are the applied, experiential and expeditionary experiences. Both virtual and physical innovation zones have been created (see projects) Students will be able to create products

Intrinsic Motivation

Establish norms based around intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation

Positive Values

Established norms build around positive outcomes

Disruptive innovation

Orient projects and curriculum on disruptive innovation. Why? Disruptive innovation focuses on new markets, networks or ideas that are changing or displacing existing markets

Students will learn that there are 7 habits that will help them develop life skills. They will learn principles and learn how to internalize them. Student will use a data notebook in Google Classroom (see the example used by another school) to help them develop accountability for their own learning.

Best Practices

Diversity:

Everything that makes us different from one another is diversity. This could include race (physical differences that groups or cultures consider socially significant), ethnicity (shared culture such as language, ancestry, practices and beliefs), gender, sexual orientation, age, abilities, socioeconomic status, religion or politics. The University of Rhode Island stated it best by saying, "Each student brings unique experiences, strengths and ideas to our classroom."

To deal with diverse students I will implement:

• Opportunities for all students to contribute

  • Develop groups where students can take on different roles

• Adaptive technology.to make learning accessible to all students

  • Talking calculators for students with dyscalculia

    • Use equatio to help students create math problems

  • Modified computer accessories for students with physical disabilities

• Use different teaching strategies and instruction

• Differentiated instruction

• Blended learning. Combine online instruction with in person classroom teaching

• Project based learning

  • Project possibilities

Collaboration:

Students will be challenged to work in a team as well as geese. Each student will have a role on their team and follow certain team guidelines.

Mistakes are encouraged

Why? Mistakes are expected and are opportunities for growth

There is a sign in the front of the room that say, "I may fail and fail again before I succeed!" This sign is there to remind us that life isn't perfect and that mistakes are part of the growth process.

No opt out

1. All or nothing strategy that requires that students participate or answer questions correctly. Incorrect or partially answered questions are corrected by other students until they are answered correctly or explained by the teacher. I do not know is not acceptable. It is acceptable to give an incorrect answer but the incorrect answer must be corrected. According to Doug Lemov there are four different formats:

2. You provide the answer and the student repeats it.

3. Another student provides the answer; the initial student or the whole class repeats the answer.

4. Teacher provides a clue; student uses the clue to find the answer.

5. Another student provides the clue. The initial student uses it to find the answer.

Why? Participation encourages a sense of responsibility, improves communication and collaboration

I use format 3 and 4 and never apologize for giving rigorous and worthy math content. I am also comfortable with long and uncomfortable pauses if a student does not answer even if that means we spend almost the entire period doing nothing.

Transparency

Show students how and why they are learning using course content

Mastery of Math Content

I use standards based grading. This is what mastery of content really means.