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About Me & My Teaching Philosophy

My name is Tracy Estelus and I earned my Masters in Science Education at Lynchburg


College in Lynchburg, Virginia in May of 2017. I will be a licensed secondary educator in
Biology and Earth Science. My teaching philosophy is not yet concrete due to the fact that I have
not formally begun teaching. However, my tentative philosophy is comprised of my experiences
as a student teacher and my informal teaching experiences at Historic Sandusky, Ecological
Society of America, Next Step Public Charter School, and the Cerebral Palsy League.
Learning occurs on an individual basis and cannot be forced on someone. It occurs
naturally when one is motivated, engaged, or interested, and when one connects new knowledge
to prior knowledge or personal experiences. As a result, my role as a teacher will be to motivate
students to learn by scaffolding and facilitating inquiry and providing the resources, knowledge,
skill, or instructional methodology required for individual learning to occur.
In order to efficiently motivate students, I must have a relationship with or know my
students. For instance, due to the fact that my physics teacher knew about my passion for track
and field and lack of interest in Physics, he was able to successfully motivate me to want to learn
more about physics. He taught me that speed is directly correlated to the amount of force an
athlete uses to push off the ground so, I took this knowledge and connected it to my personal
experiences with running Track and Field. I began doing more bounding kinesthetic exercises to
improve my initial push off force.
In my case, learning truly occurred when I took the knowledge my teacher gave me and
connected it to my prior knowledge and experiences with running. Similarly, other teachers
across various disciplines have motivated me to want to learn new concepts and apply them to
the real world. It is not sufficient for students to just memorize and regurgitate information told
them. The true test of understanding occurs when a student can apply what they learned and
transfer that knowledge to the real world.
I expect my students to be master learners. Mastery occurs when a student can not only
understand, apply, and transfer knowledge, but can also reciprocate or teach it to someone else in
a unique manner. I will encourage my students to become master learners by inspiring them to
surpass the state or common core standards. While standards are a baseline or foundation to
ensure that all students have the same knowledge, they are not the finish line. I will encourage
my students to be lifelong learners.
In conclusion, an administrator should expect to see a lot of differentiated instruction and
the use of inquiry based learning strategies in my future classroom. A typical day in my class
will consist of the use of many demonstrations, discussion webs, experiments, and interactive
activities. The use of these kinds of activities should promote inquiry based learning, and shift
the focus of the class from teacher centered to student centered. When planning my lessons or
curricula, I will follow Jay Mctighe’s “Understanding by Design” framework because the
“Backwards by Design” framework will ensure that my learning plan and interactive activities
are aligned with the learning goal, objective, or standard. I also plan on using the 5 E’s
instructional methodology to foster inquiry and individual learning in my classes.

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