Teacher Thoughts

As I am reaching the end of my MAT experience, I have been able to reflect along the way thanks to my classroom field experience. It was near the end that I was able to finalize my teaching philosophy while making it personal. In my teaching philosophy, I paid homage to a few theorists who have helped shape me as an educator. The first theorist I feel most connected to in my personal teaching is Carol Dweck and her idea of a growth mindset. It was important for me to work with my students on having a growth mindset because a lot of them came into class thinking that they were awful in science so it was pointless to even try. After a few weeks of building rapport and finding activities that made learning science relatable, I feel as if my students changed their mindset for the better. Another theorist I credit for my teaching style is Howard Gardner and his Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Most recently, I had my students create a DNA model using a kit and I did not o...

These past 16 weeks of classroom field experience have provided a lot of guidance and insight on what it takes to be an effective educator. The first thing I learned with the help of my mentor was building rapport with my students. The positive relationships I have built with my students have made the transition of me teaching full-time easy. While I am not an expert in classroom management, I credit my rapport to being able to manage the class successfully. Being able to manage a classroom which includes disciplining behavior and facilitating learning was a classroom goal of mine and I believe I have met it. I’m sure I’ll tweak things for next school year when I have my own classroom, but I am confident in my skills thus far. Since my school placement is a college preparatory school, I had the misconception that every student would be at a higher level and that I would not be able to use strategies to scaffold and model, but that wasn’t the case. I was able to use ...

During my internship, I have had the opportunity to speak to both parents and other faculty members about student behavior and progress. My experiences have been positive so far, but I attribute that to being a student teacher and not a full faculty member. As a student teacher, I want to make sure I don’t overstep my responsibilities so anytime I have any concerns about a student, I correspond with my mentor to talk about next steps in order to improve the situation. My school placement prides itself in providing a college preparatory program so its standards are higher. Since I teach freshmen biology, many students struggled with the transition from middle school to high school in the fall, and some struggled a lot more than others. My students who struggled more took longer to adapt to the higher standards. For this post, I will talk about a specific experience that went from bad to good. The first quarter allowed me to get to know my students both academically and personally, a...