Education is one of the few unifying and common experiences in our society, as a teacher there is a great responsibility to give as many students the best experience as possible with learning, institutions and adults in general. Schools are not neutral places, but they should be both open and reliable to our students as they are discovering themselves. The relationship is easily soured, even accidentally, and hard to repair in the short semester we have with them.

There is bad blood, especially in science, which has a negative reputation despite the popularity of pop science and technology in our culture. II hope to empower students to be independent learners and their own informed advocates, because knowledge really is power and it belongs to everyone. I think that there has historically been a disconnect between what students need and how curriculum is delivered, but this doesn’t have to be so. Content comes from the world around us and isn’t more valuable if we make it unapproachable.

A major focus of my teaching philosophy is that it is my duty to set students up for success with quality assessment and preemptive classroom management. Create units, lessons, and assessments which make the best use of my students time and attention by being pointed and applicable. I hope that this will enable faster feedback and effective instruction so that students will be able to accomplish our learning goals. Secondary students are still young, exhaustive homework and stress create a negative association with school and learning in general which I do not think is exactly necessary in our classrooms. Instead, I will try to develop them as active and interested learners with a grounded understanding of the content they feel they can confidently use in their lives, that it’s worthwhile.

From a classroom management perspective, secondary classes are only mine for an hour a day so I have to make the best of the time we have. By focusing on clear daily expectations, and a somewhat regular routine students can focus on other things. Optimizing classroom layout for the activities you have by arranging desks and materials in accessible ways is important, along with having clear ‘flags’ or actions which signify the beginning and ending of instruction, as well as others for the lesson as a whole will bring consistency to your classroom. By also planning flexible time for group discussion and unexpected questions reduces stress on me as a teacher and won’t require as strict of classroom management. It is also important to be clear in what you and do not expect behaviour-wise; when is it okay to talk etc. so that everyone is on the same page.

All of this is getting at proper preparation which then allows for flexibility in other aspects such as format and students grouping and hopefully will allow for more complicated activities without wasting time managing students. It is also important to realise that they are young adults, as a teacher I can let them know how they are progressing but beyond directing them and the class I cannot drag them to do learn the do not wish to. I can assist them with as much as energy as I can but not much more than they are willing to put in themselves or it will detrimental to me, other students, and them.

So far, I’m finding my experience in the college positive. It was a major adjustment coming from work in a microbiology lab and my previous degree to education. The courses are more informal and high concept and I felt a little unmoored without specific facts and systems to learn, but I think that that has been good for me as a person and as a learner. I’ve had to increase my confidence in stating my opinion, the ultimate science taboo, and discuss qualitative concepts in much more depth then I ever have before.

It’s very interesting to see the differences in courses, professors, and teacher candidates because everyone has their own take. I’ve had some frustrations with courses being a little wishy-washy, repeating similar concepts with single cumulative, loosely defined assessments. But there was still value in the differing perspectives and experiences that they brought to the table. You can still learn more about a concept if you look through a different lens with different people. I do feel a significant improvement in my understanding of the language and conventions of education as a profession and I hope that as I’ve completed these introductory courses I will have deeper understanding in the future readings and the like, now that I know exactly what they’re talking about.

I’m still very happy to pursue teaching as a career. I think that’s the advantage of coming into it after having experiences in schools and working in another career beforehand. I’ve gotten very positive feedback on my planning and flexibility so I hope those skills will support me while I catch up on my deep understanding. I’m so happy to use the new concepts and philosophies that I’m being exposed to and think back to my previous experiences with students. I can see what they teachers were doing with their classes, why some of my planned activities did not work, and hopefully how to better certain classroom management problems more effectively.

I appreciate having more professional direction through curriculum, differentiated instruction, and effective assessment. Now when I think to what my own classroom might look like and my own lessons I have a much better picture and framework than I did before. This gives me even greater confidence and excitement towards my future as a teacher.