Philosophy of Education My philosophy of education aims to develop grounded students through the concept of balance.

In terms of pedagogy, I believe in a balance of explicit teaching and exploratory learning. Establishing and modeling expectations for students provides them with the tools to demonstrate their knowledge and growth, access the curriculum, and have overall success in and outside the classroom. I use tools such as graphic organizers, sentence starters and sentence frames, visuals (images and displayed text), interactive modeling, and manipulatives to make sure that students have a variety of reception modes to be able to produce accordingly and with excellence. Additionally, I believe children need to experience something in action in order to learn. Students benefit from hands on, inquiry based, service learning and/or project based learning because they are able to come to their own conclusions in memorable, meaningful experiences. An example of this approach is having my kindergarteners physically sort picture cards and plastic foods in a giant food pyramid taped to the floor so they vividly remember and articulate which foods are healthy for them, and how much of certain food groups they should consume. I believe in the balance between the collective and the individual. There should be a time for group processing (collaborative learning)where students thoughts are articulated out loud or in writing with each otherand theres a time for individual processing and implementation. One of the best ways to ensure learning is the ability to teach others. As a teacher, it is my responsibility to provide avenues where students are sharing knowledge, experiences, and ways of thinking in whole group, small group, and partner discussions and projects. I am also responsible for providing the opportunity for students to dive into their own interests, or develop their skills and personal academic goals on their own. I believe that if students have both kinds of learning experiences on any given topic, students will be experts in those topics. This balance will also promote accountability to the growth of their community of learners, and to their personal growth. They will develop both as the collective and as individuals. I am an advocate of cross-curriculum teaching. Students need to understand the interrelatedness of the disciplines in order to see their value and application to daily life. They can transfer strategies from one subject another in order to make meaning and keep learning exciting. Artinfused lesson plans help facilitate cross-curriculum teaching that is engaging and personal. For example, I worked with two colleagues to involve three classrooms in making a large scale art display where we bridged life science, social studies, and art instruction. Students learned about the life cycle of a butterfly, and related these stages to those that societal leaders went through to become influential. In turn, they related science to their own journeys as learners, and were encouraged to dream big. This project effectively combined various subject area content, and gave them a product to use for teaching their peers. This example also illustrates my belief in collaboration between teachers within and across grade levels. Learning from the experience and creativity of other educators contributes to my strategies for making learning purposeful and meaningful. I am also open to various professional development opportunities and peer networks to better refine my knowledge of various content areas and strategies for cross-curriculum, and maintain my enthusiasm for the profession. Equity and social justice are important to me. Students should not be confined to certain types of learning and expectations based on their gender, ability, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, etc. My students will know that there are high expectations for them regardless of their social positionality, but that they will be supported to attain them with their positionality in mind. I believe that the social curriculum should be designed to give a safe space for students to learn about and articulate their own positionalities and that of others, and learn respect for diversity of backgrounds, perspectives, and ways of learning. The Multiple Intelligence Theory (Gardner, 1985) says that there are multiple modalities of learning. It is my responsibility to help students discover how they learn and how to communicate that to others in the future. The one size fits all model of learning perpetuates the achievement gap and

pushes students through a system without a solid foundation or meaningful learning. Differentiation is key to giving students equitable access to educationfrom scaffolds and language support for students with learning disabilities and/or varying linguistic backgrounds, to extension activities for advanced learners. Providing a variety of assessment methods (e.g. writing, speaking, presentations/portfolios, collaborative projects) allow students to demonstrate their knowledge in empowering settings where they can showcase their skills rather than feel incompetent. English language learners need to have explicit teaching of English conventions, academic language, and grammar in order to have equitable access to the curriculum. However, this does not and will not imply to my students that English is superior to their home languages. Students should be supported in their home language development, so that they can employ linguistic transfer in across content areas. This develops students into great resources for their families and communities. Tapping into resources outside the classroom and developing working relationships with family members helps students develop holistically as multicultural and multilinguistic beings, and bridges the home and school cultures. A balance between the standard curriculum and extra-curricular knowledge is critical to issues of social justice. I want to infuse the curriculum with historical narratives and modern day perspectives that have been overlooked or ignored. My students will learn how to be socially conscious beings: aware and curious about varying cultural perspectives, multiple ways of doing things around the world, and aware of hegemonic powers in societies. Students will be encouraged to ask, Why is this this way?, What is this not telling us? Who is this not considering? How else can this be done?, Who is and is not represented?, Who is this affecting?, What is this really saying? These questions can be applied in all content areas. My students will have opportunities to investigate and dialogue about these questions, recognize how hegemony unfolds itself in their neighborhoods through service learning, and will be supported to bring awareness about their concerns to their communities. Cultural and family practices are to be respected as students first teachers. Students cultural backgrounds need to be validated and incorporated into the curriculum. One way that I have done was was to send home hand-made puzzle pieces, and had families decorate it in ways that represented their values, cultural, and backgrounds. Students brought them back, shared them with the class, and assembled the puzzle pieces to represent community. I will solicit input from families about education and classroom environment so that there is a balance of school culture and students cultures. This input will also position me as a servant of the community, helping me to gain insight into the strengths and needs of the community, recruit resources to participate in the classroom, connecting families to knowledge and outside resources, and make learning relevant for the students. I want to provide a variety of ways that family and community members to education in ways that are considerate of and flexible with work schedules and cultural perspectives. Though our culture is quickly transitioning to virtual means, there needs balance between paper-and-pen methods and the use of technology . Technology should be an additive--rather than substitutive-- tool in the classroom. Edmodo, Google Docs and Google Earth, eBook readers, document cameras, promethean boards, podcasting, and other tools in the classroom have enhanced the lessons, increased the level of interaction that students can demonstrate, provided a way to keep records of learning, and have given equitable access to the curriculum for certain students. They have helped me to keep track of lesson plans and ideas. In my classroom, though, students will continue to learn how to use conventional methods so that they are prepared to demonstrate their knowledge and thinking in the event that technology is not available or fails. Maintaining this balance allows families who may not have access to technology to still be able to support their students and see the products of their learning. Overall, I am committed to developing conscious, grounded students through keeping balance in mind throughout my teaching practice.