Resume
My primary goal in teaching is to help shape confident learners and critical thinkers who are able to use the skills they learned in school to navigate and explore the world and interact with others. In order to build confident explorers and learners, I believe it is necessary for learning to be hands-on where there is an exploration activity so students can begin to think about new concepts amongst their peers before receiving any formal instruction. I believe all students have an innate desire to explore and learn, but often become uncomfortable tackling new material independently as due to the general structure of school they expect all the correct information to be presented to them and are afraid of being wrong. 
I want my students to feel capable of exploring and forming their own theories about brand new concepts. I also want my students to be comfortable working in groups as I feel the most important part of school is developing social skills and learning to interact and learn with others. This way of thinking aligns with a constructivist perspective as students will use their prior knowledge to sort and understand new information as they forever continue in refining their thinking. A constructivist perspective has also helped me prioritize what is important in a classroom environment as it highlights the existence of intrinsic motivation for learning, the importance of formative assessment, and student-led discussion. 
By having to rely on prior knowledge when exploring new concepts, the connections students form in their brains will be stronger and the information will be better organized in their minds. This better organization of content will also help transform students from novices to experts as it places the focus more on how to understand and use the concepts being explored rather than on memorization for test performance. This difference in mental organization between novices and experts is helpful as it highlights the importance of true conceptual understanding for real life application of concepts. 
I also want to actively break down learning barriers in my classroom and one barrier I specifically want to tackle is the influence of stereotype threat on students. Understanding what stereotype is is extremely helpful when considering what might be holding students back and acknowledging the existence of this threat in my classroom will help students break free of this threat so they may realize they belong in any learning environment. By simply acknowledging and understanding the existence of this stereotype threat, students can understand how this threat affects them in their studies and in their lives. This is very important and I plan on tackling this by using relationship building activities and cultivating a positive classroom environment with a strong sense of community. 
I think students learn best when they feel capable, have autonomy, and feel valued. By allowing students time to participate in group discussion and form their own theories, confidence and capability are instilled as they contribute their own ideas. With this mindset, it is my goal to help students gain the necessary tools for independent, lifelong learning; for students to feel confident in their ability to further their own knowledge and form their own thoughts and understandings of issues outside of school.
Teaching Philosophy