I am currently a secondary science teacher at Groton Junior/Senior High School in Groton, New York. Groton is a small school district in Tompkins County, in the Finger Lakes Region of Central NY. For the past year, I have taught Physical Science at the Middle School level and General Chemistry at the High School level. I have also started a robotics club and participate in the pit orchestra for school musicals and other events.
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
― William Butler Yeats
My teaching: I believe all students are capable of being scientists. To engage in science means to practice inquiry, to ask questions, and to seek out the answers. This field is not limited to those with doctoral degrees or those of certain races or genders, but available to everyone and should be accessible to everyone.
I want to get my students as excited about science as I am. I want them to see that science is beautiful, mysterious, pertinent, and most importantly, vital to their development as adolescents. To do this, I bring my enthusiasm into the classroom, modeling that science is interesting, exciting, and fun.
I prefer teaching predominantly by inquiry, allowing students to find their way into the answers such that they are more likely to connect to, remember, and synthesize learning as well as provide them the agency they need to know that they can be scientists. By practicing disciplinary literacy and encouraging my students to learn science the way scientists do, I work to forge a deeper respect, understanding, and passion for science. This type of learning provides students experiences they can remember and off of which they can build.
I am most excited to teach because I love learning and students offer a fresh perspective and a unique insight. I learn more from students every day and hope to continue that for the rest of my career.
I provide a more in depth review of educational theory and research I use to inform my practice in my full Teaching Philosophy, but to synthesize, I have four rules for teaching:
a. Teach well – when you have high expectations for your students you should also have high expectations for your own practice.
b. Attend to individual needs – every student deserves to feel safe, valued, and needed, as well as capable of being a scientist.
c. Build a supportive, inclusive classroom culture – the classroom is not only a place for the teacher, it is a place for the students.
d. Allow students to learn like scientists – students will, given the space and tools, create meaning for themselves. It is better to allow them to learn than to tell them what to know.