How I Teach

This website is a story of my journey to become a better educator and allows me to put all of my thoughts into one space to allow connections in my practice. How I teach is so multifaceted that it is hard to describe, but here is a short description of my teaching style and how I began my journey. Because I am a science teacher, this website has many science references and content; however, there are topics like decolonizing education, anti-racist education, inclusivity, humanizing students, standards-based grading, competency-based education, and removing power struggles in the classroom that can apply to all classrooms. 

I have taught for eight years. In that time I have always taught in low-income areas, and living in the same neighborhoods as my students. My experience includes 7th-grade Life Science and 8th-grade Physical Science, Environmental Science, Chemistry, Earth Science, and Engineering at various high school levels. Many of those students had IEPs and/or were Multilingual learners. I have also conducted many professional development classes for the teachers I have worked with, including technology education, standards-based grading practices, competency-based curricula, and recognizing manifestations of mental concerns. I have worked in small towns and urban areas including Denver and New York City. 

         I started teaching with one philosophy; everyone is capable of learning. Three years into teaching, I began to notice that many aspects of education were designed to be discriminatory. I also found out that 20%-25% of high school freshmen drop out of high school. This is a glaring sign that something in education is wrong. This number changes though from which source you look at and how these percentages are factored. I have seen as low as 7% in some sources, and as high as 25% in others. 

I now teach using a blend of teaching styles. I divide the year into basic topics. I find jobs that are associated with each topic, and that I know can be used for my purposes, some jobs are too complicated for our content. Each job has a list of building criteria that lead to an end project. In this way, I have combined competency-based teaching with an inquiry style of learning, and standards-based grading by using each set of goals as the grade level. 

The beginning of each unit begins with some initial thoughts, and learning the basic vocabulary needed for the unit. This builds by reading about the job, and the topics the student picks. Then students watch videos about the content and jobs. Then students do an activity that I have designed to mimic that particular job. For example, students used satellite data to predict the weather, so their build-up activity was to watch and record the weather data each day for different places. Using this data they could see patterns in the weather and make a project showcasing their prediction for the following day, like a real meteorologist. I do this for many different kinds of jobs, that give a student experience in this role, while learning content they are interested, in and creating something new.  

My class is all self-paced with deadlines that need to be met, and for the most part, runs itself. My students come in every day, sit down and begin work, with no instructions. I do not lecture to the whole class anymore but instead can give one on one or small group lectures about specific topics. These are more meaningful conversations, and students can see how the science we are learning applies in many ways. The students present their projects to each other and are exposed to many different applications of the same scientific principles. I do this with high school students with all levels of abilities, and I can customize each student's learning to their needs and interests. 

I try to be 100% inclusive of all people and cultures and encourage students to bring that individuality and culture into the classroom. I do not use punishments or rewards or fear to motivate students. Instead, I treat students like coworkers. I humanize students and their situations while removing power struggles and demands for compliance.  I am on a quest to decolonize my science class and make all students feel safe and accepted. I want students to feel like they are capable of learning science, instead of another class where they feel like they are not smart, get discouraged, and close themselves off from this information. 

I made this website because throughout my journey I have been talking with many different educators about things that I am learning. Many teachers want to know more and have difficulty finding information about these topics that fit in with what they are doing. In talking to some student teachers, I realized that many of these things are never talked about in a teacher's education. I wanted the information that I know to be accessible to more who were wanting to teach differently. I also wanted a space where I can lay out all of the different aspects that I need to include in my teaching and make connections between them. If you want to know more about any of the things I have talked about, then click on some of the sections below. 

Contact me:

nextgenscienceteachers@gmail.com