Like many young adults, I struggled in school.

The content seemed irrelevant, teachers

seemed out of touch, and the whole experience seemed like a forced experiment in social
conformity. This bothered me for more reasons than just the obvious. I knew education was the
key to success, and I knew education was root of change. The misalignment of my views on
education with my experiences in education were the foundation for my involvement in the
profession today. I believe that the educational experience should be inviting, student driven, and
socially relevant. It is our job as teachers to facilitate a community of active learners through
encouraging students own drives to reach their specific goals.
My objective as an educator is to build lifelong learners who are not afraid to find
innovative ways to be themselves in a dynamic and diverse world. Cultivating this type of
culture stems from creating a positive school environment. Building such an environment takes
many approaches. I start by building relationships with my students, and through setting norms
that expect respect and opportunity for all.
Students in my classroom have as much intellectual freedom as possible within the
confines of a focused learning target. Creating student relevant essential questions establishes the
freedom and drive to learn within my classroom. Big questions and positive relationships are the
ingredients for an environment of active learning. With those two ingredients students have
lowered their affective filters in a brave environment, allowing them to work collaboratively
towards reaching their individual goals.
In incorporating a variety of models of teaching I successfully differentiate my
instruction in an integrated classroom. Students have the opportunity to work on different
projects at their own pace. On any given day half of the class might be working on presenting
their dramatic interpretation of their favorite graphic novel, while the other half are writing
essays explaining how the American Dream is falsely portrayed by the literary cannon. This
level of differentiation, and cross-content study, is the only way that we can ensure lasting
understandings and active engagement for all students.
My assessments are designed like my lessons. I begin with a learning target, and then
build from there. This approach ensures that my lessons are meaningful, and that the work
students are producing enable and enhance their learning. Inquiry and workshop based models
are used in my classroom daily along with teaching strategies that implore students to show their
thinking. Students in my room work together to strengthen neural connections by approaching
the learning targets with a variety of lenses, each representing one or more of the six facets of
understanding. The importance of meta-cognition is valued through student practice. We
frequently reflect on ourselves, our understandings, and our processes to ensure that the whole
picture can be painted.
I believe that students in my classroom feel that learning is not a process, but rather a way
of being. It is though cultivating such a perspective that my students are able to be successful
persons inside, and outside, of the walls of my classroom.