Felicia R. Goodman, PhD

• Teaching Philosophy

• Classroom Community and Safety Plan

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During my year-long student teaching experience, I developed a student-centered, culturally-relevant approach to teaching and learning; one that focuses on the teacher's responsibility to (1) create a safe and supportive learning environment that respects individual differences including, but not limited to, gender, race, religion, or ability and (2) encourage active student participation through immersive, hands-on assignments based on argument-driven inquiry and examples of real-life phenomena.

 

I created a positive learning environment and demonstrate mutual respect for respect for, rapport with, and responsiveness to my students needs in a variety of ways including, but not limited to: greeting them at the door when they arrive to class; calling them by name when they raise their hand with a question; display exemplary student give liberal praise when they answer call-and-response questions correctly or when they ask meaningful and insightful questions; respond gently and encouragingly when they answer a question incorrectly; lightly tough the students on the shoulder or back as a means of providing encouragement or correction; and, finally, I try to assure their comfort by keeping the room at a comfortable temperature. Finally, I make sure to engage in reciprocal sharing of culture with my students. For example, at the beginning of the semester, my students participate in several icebreakers and fill in information sheets that give me a better idea about their personalities, hobbies, and learning styles. I often bring traditional Jewish foods into my classroom to share with my students, and provide descriptions of holidays that I observe (especially when said observance causes me to be absent from class) as well. My students are encouraged to do the same. Not only does this cultural exchange create mutual understanding and trust, but it gives me greater insight into my students’ lives, allowing me to plan lessons and assessments that reflect their lived experiences which, in turn, makes science more relevant and accessible to them (Ormrod, 2016).

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Another way that I attempt to increase relevancy, accessibility, and utility of science is through increased application of hands-one, kinesthetic activities based on argument-driven inquiry. Active or kinesthetic learning – what I often refer to as “learning through doing” – is a popular teaching style that has the potential to alleviate the boredom and malaise expressed by students by engaging them more thoroughly with the content. Inquiry-based teaching methods falls under the category of kinesthetic learning, and has been shown to increased student engagement (Smallhorn., Young, Hunter, & Burke da Silva, 2015) as well as achievement (Wilson, Taylor, Kowalski & Carlson, 2010). One of my favorite inquiry-based activities is a lesson on cellular transport that allowed students to make observations about the effects of water, vinegar, and corn syrup on “naked eggs,” i.e. eggs that had their shells removed, but retained their inner and out shell membranes. Based on these results, the students conducted experiments with a variety of liquids and made hypotheses about the effects each liquid would have on the remaining eggs based on their purported solute content.

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Finally, my students attend a high-needs school and often face familial, social, and/or economic problems that can detract from their educational focus in ways that are seldom seen in more privileged districts. For example, some of my students are responsible for watching their younger siblings after school while their parent or parents are still work while others have their own jobs in order to supplement parental income. Both of these things may prevent students from participating in extracurricular activities and/or attending tutorial sessions after school. Frequent absenteeism is also an issue. I have a great deal of empathy for these students: while I was lucky enough to grow up as a part of the latter, more fortunate demographic, I have a great deal of empathy for my students because, when I was in high school, I struggled to manage the overwhelming physical and emotional demands of being a type 1 diabetic. There were times when, despite my vigilance, I got sick and had to fight for the opportunity to finish missed or incomplete projects and exams. While "diabetes" per se is not directly generalizable to the student population at a high-needs school, dealing with seemingly insurmountable challenges on a day-to-day is. Modeling responsible behavior and maintaining a positive attitude for my students is just as important for student success as providing them with the resources that they need in order to succeed (Ulug, Ozden, & Eryilmaz, 2011).

 

In order to make it easier for students to get the assistance they need – either because they were unable to come to class, need extra help, or simply want to get a jump start on future material – I post all classwork and homework assignments as well as supplementary materials such as content-related videos, crossword puzzles, and coloring pages on Infinite Campus and/or Google Classroom. This strategy has proven to be particularly helpful with students with frequent absenteeism as well as students who are unable to come to tutorial who would otherwise be embarrassed to ask for help (Chandra & Fisher, 2009).   

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REFERENCES 

1. Chandra, V., & Fisher, D.L. (2009). Students' Perceptions of a Blended Web-Based Learning Environment. Learning Environments Research, 12(1), 31-44.

2. Ormrod, J. (2016). Human learning. (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

3. Smallhorn, M., Young, J., Hunter, N., & Burke da Silva, K. (2015). Inquiry-based learning to improve student engagement in a large first year topic. Student Success, 6(2), 65-71.

4. Ulug, M., Ozden, M.S., & Eryilmaz, A. (2011). The Effects of Teachers’ Attitudes on Students’ Personality and Performance. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 30, 738-742.

5. Wilson, C. D., Taylor, J. A., Kowalski, S. M., & Carlson, J. (2010). The relative effects and equity of inquiry‐based and commonplace science teaching on students' knowledge, reasoning, and argumentation. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 47(3), 276-301.

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