I am an educator at heart and have taken on the challenge of preparing students for the 21st century. My educational philosophy and instructional approaches hinge on learning by doing.
I have a respect for each individual, and thus instruction is student centered. My classroom instructional practices have not always aligned with this philosophy, although through my own professional development and exploration of effective techniques I have arrived at an approach that focuses on experiential learning.
This approach to learning may have evolved from my roots as a science educator. I base the structure of my courses around the scientific method of observations and experimentation. I have found students demonstrate a higher level of success and mastery of content on labs, experiments, and on projects where students are given choices to explore. Though this philosophy is easily applied in scientific courses, the same concepts can be creatively adapted to other areas of study, including language arts, social studies, and mathematics.
However, I also recognize that there is no one philosophy or educational approach that best serves every academic discipline, or every student at every stage. There are times where the classroom needs to be teacher-centered, where tests scores can indicate progress, and the conveyance of knowledge is paramount to student choice, and times where other approaches should be utilized.