Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Tafoya
Education
Philosophy
As
students
enter
the
transition
into
adulthood,
they
have
reached
an
essential
point
of their education to learn skills that will be valuable for the rest of their lives. Students
will learn so much more than just content, they will learn how to work collaboratively,
utilize technology, and embrace new study skills. Students are beginning to enter a socio-
connections to the world around them. As a teacher, I believe that this is a crucial age in
ones life, and my role as an educator is to guide students through adolescence by creating
meaningful lessons.
As a middle school teacher, my goal is to create meaningful learning for all students.
All students will be encouraged and expected to master transferable skills that they will
carry through their adult life. First and foremost, a positive and safe learning environment
will be established, which is crucial for students to learn to their fullest potential. To
ensure that students feel safe within the classroom, time will be spent with teambuilding
exercises and creating strong relationships amongst students, parents, and other teachers.
Diversity will be celebrated and embraced within the curriculum and student learning. A
safe and predictable environment will be emphasized for students to feel comfortable in
To ensure that students are learning and mastering new skills, they will participate
classroom to help students learn how to work collaboratively in a team and build on their
learning.
This
will
include
creating
lessons
with
meaningful
movement,
meaningful
Erin
Tafoya
conversation to enhance social skills, lessons that promote higher order thinking, and
finding connections to the real world. Student choice will also be emphasized to promote
ownership of student learning. I believe that all students are expected to show growth
throughout the year, and along with student choice, this will be accomplished by
differentiating lessons. A students individual strengths and areas of need will always be
taken into consideration to help them achieve mastery of skills and content.
assessments will be utilized daily in order to guide lessons and help students achieve
mastery. Students will also be given a variety of choices of alternative assessments to show
their learning by applying the knowledge they have acquired along with skills they have
development, and read professional literature to learn new strategies. I hope to model and
promote the attitude of becoming a life-long learner so that my students value being life
long learners themselves. I plan to continue my higher education in order to stay current
with content and effective learning strategies. Reflection will also be a tool that is used
each and every day to review if my lessons were effective for students and how I can
Middle school can involve a lot of change, but it can also help students learn about
themselves, our global community, and master new skills. Along with learning in the