Personal Education Philosophy Thaddaeus Dvorak I love education.

Not necessarily the institutionalized version of education that we see today, but education in general. Education gives the learner an option to remain where they are or make progress in their life and improve themselves. Whether a person chooses to actually take that step forward is up to them, but the inevitable outcome of an educating experience is the learner is afforded a choice. Remain stagnant or move forward. This also is also revealing about a persons character. Learning is not something that is comfortable or easy but requires a person to put themselves in a vulnerable situation and force themselves to be successful in that situation. Those who repeatedly push themselves to be successful and subject themselves to that vulnerability will improve. This is not exclusive to schools and colleges. Learning can take place in any situation with any topic. Whether it is in the classroom, in the workplace, on a farm, in social situations or even relationships; learning can take place in any situation. The learner just has to make the decision and put in the effort. This is the purpose of education to improve. A pivotal way of accomplishing this is nailing down, as an educator, two things; instructional methodologies and classroom management techniques. I think that a clear and visible set of classroom guidelines as well as expectations, that everyone is bound to, should be one of, if not, the first thing established at the start of a class. Then displaying them in the classroom where it can be seen by the class at all time and referenced any time someone is in violation of it. I believe that the majority of classroom discipline issues stem from an unclear start and failure to define the attitude that the class will take. There must be no doubt, in the minds of the students as well as the teacher, after that first week how the class is going to run and what will and will not be tolerated. I am a firm believer of being excessively firm in the beginning in order to be able to have fun later. This requires the teacher to have the first week of class excessively planned out in order to know how each situation students bring up has been planned for and is then executed to the T. I also think that the number one classroom management strategy is an awesome lesson plan. If a lesson is developed that is interesting, engaging, practical, applicable, with solid transitions and a definite beginning middle and end that is well paced so the stud ents dont have time to think about anything other than what they are learning. For me I have a pretty wide range of tools that I need to use in order to effectively asses my students being involved with both Earth Science classes as well as Physical Education. In physical education, although it is one of the most unpopular topics, I like the idea of pretesting and post testing students in the different skills sets that are being focused on in the class as well as during the duration of the class. This, although no one likes to be tested or to give and grade tests, is the area of physical education that is the most lacking and potentially one of the most valuable things that can be done in the class, not only for the students improvement but also for maintaining the content areas value and worth. Testing and collecting data from students improvement and the implications that the improvement on the students lives needs to be at

the forefront of every physical educators mind especially with the current budget status of so many schools. Advocate advocate advocate!!! Even if your school isnt doing poorly, continue to advocate for your program. If the administrators are asking you what value your program brings to the school and why it shouldnt be cut, you are already too late. Methods for this should be both formative and summative. This should take place before, during and after the class. For example, if the class is currently doing a basketball segment then the students should be tested on their current ability level in each of the essential skills in the game of basketball. Then during the semester the students should be formatively tested, but still recorded by their teacher, so their progress is being closely monitored. This can be done by simple observation and any of many recording methods, the more technologically advanced the method the easier it is to analyze, during class activities. This close monitoring and recording allows the educator to monitor both the students progress and the educators teaching effectiveness as well as collecting data for advocating. Then at the end official summative testing should be done, similar to the testing done at the beginning of the unit to reveal the overall progress that had been made. This simple idea, if applied as described has the potential to transform physical education from an area controlled by fat exathletes who couldnt get any other job into a legitimate content area that is equally contributing to the betterment of the students and their lives. In the area of Earth Science summative assessment is a staple and is solidified in its methods. I think that good test writing is very important and should be always be approached with great care because of its ability to both accurately and inaccurately depict students learning progress. But I am of the opinion that the formative assessment is where the true importance lies. It is in the formative testing period that learning takes place and students either excel or fall behind. But realizing this on the unit test is too late. It needs to be known each and every day when the class is let out. What they understood, what they didnt, and what I as a teacher need to do as a result. My favorite way of doing this, mostly due to my teaching style and my on stage personality, is involved lessons/lectures and guided note taking. In this I convey information, spark in depth thinking through questions and strongly encouraging class involvement in the lecture, constantly reiterate the information, and always give opportunities for students to say they do not understand or are lost. All of this is done in a comfortable atmosphere where it is abundantly clear that this is a time for us to all come together, try new things, and learn through making mistakes including the teacher. Without that atmosphere what is the point? Nothing will happen that hasnt already been done since the one room schoolhouse. These are some of the staple ideas that form the philosophy that I hold for my teaching. I am still working to accomplish many of these things and I cant even say that it will be t he same a year from now. But it is a great place to start.