Educational Philosophy

I am dedicated to teaching students and helping them develop skills to be successful in a global society.  I teach Spanish so students can learn to communicate effectively in another language and appreciate different world cultures.  Students practice reading, listening, viewing, speaking, and writing skills; and make connections and comparisons between other cultures and their own.  Students collaborate on group projects that focus on real-life application.  They learn to solve problems, not only when communicating in spoken or written exchange, but when interacting with classmates.

I believe learning involves curiosity, trial, and revision.  I encourage inquiry and give students opportunities to experience success through repeated and progressive performance.  Language learning is a process and students need time and perseverance to achieve challenging goals.  I allow students to redo assignments and retake assessments because they do not learn skills at the same time or pace.  Students receive credit when they successfully apply knowledge and demonstrate skill.

            I believe students learn best when they feel safe and cared for in their learning environment.  I have clear, high expectations of student class work and behavior.  Students must respect others, take responsibility for their actions and work, and support each other.  I make sure my classroom positively embraces student differences and encourages them to explore their interests.  Unit objectives, communicative tasks, and activities that require higher order thinking skills challenge students to do their best.

I strive to learn new strategies and activities and incorporate them in the classroom.  I am flexible in unit structure to accommodate student learning needs.  I include authentic materials and comprehensible input to differentiate language skills.  Students use drawing to communicate ideas, songs to reinforce language functions, and dance and food to share additional aspects of culture.   I collect informal work samples to assess student progress toward unit objectives and to inform my teaching.  Students have opportunities to showcase their progress and mastery on summative assessments.

April, 2016