Teacher Thoughts

My school placement has a good amount of diversity as it provides multiple international programs which includes students from China, Ireland, Spain, and Australia. Additionally, parents do pay tuition for their students to attend my school so the community falls in a higher socio-economic status. Particularly with exchange students, they are 100% fluent in English and can read and write well, but speaking English can be difficult at times. In my individual classes, I have had a couple of exchange students and had to utilize various differentiation techniques to ensure they were learning. All students are given iPads and I’d allow my exchange students to record the lesson so they can listen to it later to promote comprehension. By allowing them to record the lesson, they are able to focus on me and the content rather than taking too much time writing things down and not knowing what it means. Flexibility as a teacher is very important to ensure that all students are l...

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 ...