I became a teacher because I thrive on the “ah-ha” moments and believe that every student should be experiencing them on a regular basis.  I take a constructivist approach to guiding my students through generating knowledge, skills, and meaning by interacting with experiences and ideas.  Students must engage in learning in a meaningful and relevant way to achieve their best and be prepared to be successful, well-rounded, contributing citizens.  I feel, as their teacher, I am an architect that designs, builds, and redesigns an inclusive, active, engaging, and safe learning environment and then I am a guide who provides scaffolds and non-judgmental feedback along their journey. 

 

            I enter my classroom knowing that my students' abilities are fluid and that I want every student experiencing success.  I lead by example and show every student respect.  I  create a safe environment by promoting and showing integrity, honesty, and respect, and by providing the leadership for students to emulate.  My lesson plans are created with the Universal Design for Learning at the center and include a log of daily reflection.  My goal is for all students to be working in their zone of proximal development, with effective and appropriate scaffolding, leading to continual student success.  I have seen the strength of scaffolding and the positive effect of student success in both my early experience teaching swimming and coaching diving and in my more recent experience teaching first and second year general and organic chemistry.  With attribution theory in mind, I will make sure my students continually see that effort leads to success.  With reflection, I will adapt to my students’ needs and areas of competency.

 

             In designing a universally accessible lesson plan, I use a diversity of student-centered learning strategies to promote engagement and personal autonomy.  My classroom will always be an active place using instructional strategies including student centered, hands-on experiments, projects, and problem solving, with collaboration encouraged.  Effectively creating this type of learning environment requires a lot of advance planning.  I am extremely organized, detailed-oriented, and know from experience the value of being well prepared.  Every minute of my class time is treasured and used effectively with static and interactive scaffolds including myself, technology, and peer instruction.  Scaffolds will be provided to accomplish tasks but also for developing critical, creative thinking, intrinsic motivation, and self-direction. 

 

             My view is that assessment needs to be done on an ongoing, daily basis; keeping notes and evidence of learning along the way.  This is important for adapting lesson plans and making sure students are working in their zone of proximal development.  I will minimize the emphasis on extrinsic motivation and teach my students by focusing on authentic competence through the experience of mastery, where students set achievable personal goals and accomplish them.