Supporting Diverse Learners

The TEDx talk by Sir Ken Robinson addresses the question of whether the school system is destroying students ability to be creative. Children have huge capacities for innovation. "All kids have tremendous talents and we squander them." We take students who are able to do multiplication in 2nd grade and tell them to wait until fifth grade. We take the creativity that young children have and we do not give it a place in the school system. Students are meant to sit and recite with no influence on their own education. Another main speaking point that the speaker talked about was the inability for us to grasp the future. "The education is meant to take us into a future that we cant grasp" No one has an idea what the world will be like in five years time let alone twenty years and we as teachers are supposed to be educating them for this. How can this possibly be done? Who knows if the standards we teach will be meaningful to the students in that amount of time or if t

Learning Focus and Teaching Style The focus of the learning should be on practical applications of standard based topics . Many teachers only focus on meeting standards and tend to leave students to fend for themselves when it comes to practical understanding of topics. I believe that students must be able to find reason and practical applications for every assignment given. I have to provide meaningful assignments that allow students to explore on their own and discover meaning behind the work they do. I will teach in a very hands on way and will only do lecture based teaching when it is something better explained in words than trying to do an experiment with it. This aligns with the ideas of progressivism because they both agree that experimentation and personal discovery is more important that any standards. Classroom Organization and Classroom Climate As a Science teacher I do not have much leniency for organizing a classroom due to the safety standards that I need to adher

As a preservice teacher, I know my educational philosophy. It has developed by witnessing excellent teachers and through studying what works. My philosophy has also been developed by witnessing and experiencing the affects of teachers showing me what not to do. An article on Edutopia by Ben Johnson and another article on ThoughtCo by Beth Lewis outline different questions that should be answered in a professional educational philosophy. The educational philosophy statement is often the deciding factor between getting an interview and having your application pushed aside. It is essential for preservice teachers to have time to develop their educational philosophies. The philosophies should be challenged by classroom discussion and not just discussed in surface level classes.  In the article by Ben Johnson, There is a caption that caught my attention. " Over the summer, teachers reflect on the year and often redesign and perfect their teaching strategies and plans. In essence

"Blackkklansman" is a movie about a black policeman trying to work in the South during the time of the KKK. After the movie I stayed for a conversation about the movie. This was marketed to the students as something that would be beneficial to the class we were taking. The conversation was all about how the movie made people feel, lighting and  screenplay rather than application of the movie to educational topics. It was more designed for film students rather than perspective educators.  While the movie would be somewhat beneficial to high school history teachers, it wasn't a movie that would be allowed to be shown due to the rating of the movie. For myself as a science major, it did not aid in anyway to my educational career. I went into the showing of the movie expecting to have an in-depth conversation about education but instead was met with a completely different topic. As an educator it is my job to make sure I am choosing meaningful assignments and requirements f

To use technology or not to use technology, that is the question. In a study done by S. Selcen Guzey and Gillian H. Roehrig, focused on how technology was used and under what situations it’s usage is beneficial. They used teachers of several different technology backgrounds and ran a study on which teachers were providing more effective technology usage in the classroom. The study concluded that teachers that have more advance understanding of technology are better able to integrate it into the classroom. That is sort of a no brainer but the study also emphasized that teachers who constantly reevaluate how they are using technology in the classroom are making better use of the technology. As an educator it is our job to constantly look at what we are doing and make sure it aligns with our students needs.  One thing that always drew me to the subject of science was the hands on nature of the subject. It required hands on learning in order to be able to completely understand the to

By beliefs on assigning homework is very simple. Homework should not be busy work. Homework should be assigned sparingly. Homework should be meaningful to the subject being taught. When I think of homework I think of teachers assigning 40+ short answer or math problems. In classes we would read articles and then be assigned questions. Sometimes we would go over the questions other times we would hand them in and get a grade with no real feedback. The topic of the articles would rarely relate to the topic of the next class. I also found myself overwhelmed by homework assignments. With 8 different classes and several extra curriculars I had very little time to actually do homework. There was little time for free time out side of extracurriculars and school. In my classroom I will use the experiences I had in high school to shape how I assign homework. When I do assign homework it will either be necessary for the next lesson or will reinforce the lesson we just had. Whenever my studen

This article provides a list of ways for science teachers to bring invitation into the classroom in a safe and economical way. Some of the ideas that I want to focus on that I have not considered before are; Innovation day, Classroom gardens, Field Education, and Genius hour. Each of these ideas would fit best into a certain realm of science and may not fit so well in others. Innovation Day: This is designed to be a day for students to be innovative thinkers. Students will be able to spend the day exploring topics that interest them and creating something based off of the interest. In my classroom, it would be interesting to spend one day per unit to let students explore the unit more in depth. They can choose any part of it and explore. It may be possible that I have several labs set up (That aren't dangerous for students to explore with) and allow students to figure out how to solve the problem they have come up with. For example I could have heat of fusion labs set-up and I&

Part IV: Theory and The Big Picture The author of  "Letters to a Young Scientist" begins this section by saying that science is the only way to understand the universe in its entirety. Social sciences and humanities can aid science in explaining the world but it does not fully encompass the entirety of the universe. So many students see science as just a subject they need to pass to move onto their majors in English, history, or psychology. In reality science encompasses everything and even though the subject matter may not be used in an English major or something like that, the skills learned can be used anywhere. Science is about the creative process and divergent thinking. Wilson moves onto the next chapter by introducing the idea that scientist have to see blanks in the explanations we have for things. They have to be able to see what is not there. This is an essential skill for any job that requires problem solving. Even if my students do not master the topic of scie