Hayden Koller A #1 Reflective Response #5

April 7, 2017

Standards Addressed:

Standard 1-Learner Development: The teacher understands how learners grow and
develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually
within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and
designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning
experiences

Standard 9-Professional Learning and Ethical Practice: The teacher engages in

ongoing professional learning and uses evidence to continually evaluate his/her
practice, particularly the effects of his/her choices and actions on others (learners,
families, other professionals, and the community), and adapts practice to meet the
needs of each learner.

A lesson I taught that demonstrates my educational philosophy was a middle

school science lesson about energy. This lesson began with a
Predict/observe/explain demonstration involving a green and red flashlight. I asked
several inquiry questions about the two lights such as what color would be made if
I mixed the 2 of them together? and which color would shine through my hand the
most? after which I had the students discuss in small groups. This is something I
mentioned in my educational philosophy that I wanted to do in the beginning of
every lesson to get the students hooked and interested. In addition it builds and
develops one of the most important science skills, hypothesizing and making
inferences even if you dont know for sure what is happening. I also introduced a
new feature in the classroom which was a question board in the corner of the
room. My class if very discussion heavy and occasionally the students end up asking
great science questions that arent really relevant to the material for that day.
Instead of ignoring these queries I told the students if they asked a non-relevant
question I would have them write it down and put it on the board so we could refer
back to it at another time. One thing that was really important to my philosophy
was making sure students ideas feel validated and having this board allows that to
happen while keeping the class on track.
 After this introduction the class transitioned into the main lesson which was a
discovery based lab about energy. The students were given a variety of devices that
they needed to manipulate and determine what types of energy they used as well
as describe how they knew that happened. This lab was a great way of
demonstrating my education philosophy, specifically the part where I talked about
developing lab techniques/real-world skills. This lab required students to test objects
in a systematic way to discover what types of energy/what energy transformations
they utilized. In addition that had to describe how they were able to determine that
these transformations. These skills for the basis for any type of scientific research
from mycology to astrophysics and the earlier these skills are introduced the better.
In addition to these research skills the students had to work together in their small
groups to figure out the best way to present their findings to the rest of the class.
Presenting and formatting data is a skill that transcends just the scientific fields and
is used in the business world, college, engineering, etc.

Overall I felt like this lesson really showcased my educational philosophy in a

variety of ways. It had P.O.E events in the beginning to get the students hooked and
in a science mindset. It set classroom routines and expectations as well as allowing
students ideas to feel validated when I introduced the question board. Finally I
was able to develop real life science skills through a self-guided inquiry based lab
which allowed students to lead themselves instead of relying on me to directly tell
them what to do.