Philosophy of Education

When children are in elementary school, they all want to participate.  Everyone raises a hand, supports one arm with the other, and says, "OOO-OOO!" in the hopes that the teacher will select him/her.  For some reason, this phenomenon has long since disappeared by the time these same students come to my classroom at the high school level.

I believe that any student will learn given the appropriate oppurtunity for success.  Too many times, lessons are sculpted to meet the demands of a standardized test without accomodating the actual needs of the students.  The needs of students and the curriculum must intersect in a way that allows the students to engage in meaningful learning and see the relevance of the concepts to their lives.

Any student, regardless of IQ or ability, can learn.  This requires building student confidence in some instances.  Students may need to be encouraged to see themselves as successful learners, especially if the students has a history of academic or behavioral struggles.

Success also depends upon cooperation and collaboration of students, parents, teachers, IEP teams, interdisciplinary teams.  Success also requires that multiple path or stratgies for learning are provided.

Once students are given the opportunity and realize that they can succeed, students are more apt to achieve.  I believe that all students want to learn when they begin school but that many are discouraged along the way.

I want to put the "OOO-OOO!" back into the high school classroom.