Why teaching matters
I strongly believe that a solid, well-rounded education gives people the foundational knowledge needed to navigate our increasingly complex society. Literacy skills, in particular, help people understand information, make informed decisions, and adapt to rapid technological change. At the societal level, the acquisition and application of knowledge are essential to addressing the challenges we face. I see gaps in education as a significant barrier to progress, and teaching as a meaningful way to help address them.
These broad beliefs guide me, but my personal aim is simply to improve the lives of the people in my community. Teaching gives me the opportunity to connect with young people in meaningful ways and contribute to their futures. By doing my best to equip each student with practical skills and knowledge, I can help them navigate challenges and expand their opportunities. This connection between education’s broader purpose and the contributions I can make in my classroom is why teaching is important to me.
Beliefs about teaching and learning
Literacy has been central to my personal and professional growth. Visual and information literacy helped me begin a career in graphic design, while my love of reading supported my transition into teaching English as a foreign language. A broad range of literacy skills also allowed me to balance teaching with studying to become a certified middle school science teacher.
I view literacy as an evolving set of skills that enables people to access, interpret, evaluate, and communicate information. As science, technology, and media develop, these skills become increasingly important. My ten years of teaching English as a foreign language have shown me how literacy can expand people’s opportunities. My training and student teaching in middle grades science have broadened this perspective to include interpreting data, evaluating evidence, and communicating scientific explanations. These experiences have shaped my belief that developing literacy is a responsibility across subject areas, and I aim to integrate it regularly into instruction and assessment.
I also believe that students deepen their understanding through practice and application. In my own learning, opportunities to use new knowledge have helped me refine, revise, and solidify ideas and transfer them to unfamiliar situations. I want my students to have similar opportunities. Direct instruction provides essential explanations and modeling, and I use it to prepare students for meaningful practice with increasing independence.
Finally, I believe exploration and play can help students recognize gaps in their understanding and develop curiosity about what they do not yet know. Opportunities to experiment before receiving a full explanation can give students a reason to ask questions and a stronger motivation to seek answers. I therefore value making room for exploration alongside explicit instruction and guided practice.
Together, these beliefs shape my approach to teaching: help students make sense of information, give them opportunities to apply their learning, and encourage the curiosity that motivates them to learn more.
Theory and research
My beliefs about literacy are supported by the approaches I studied in WGU’s Secondary Disciplinary Literacy (C728), Educational Technology for Teaching and Learning (D092), and Science Methods—Middle Grades General Science (C974) courses. These courses emphasized the role of reading, writing, technology, and scientific literacy in helping students access, evaluate, and communicate information (Western Governors University, n.d.-b, n.d.-c, n.d.-d). These courses and the connections between them support my belief that literacy development should be integrated into subject instruction.
My beliefs about practice and exploration are supported by constructivism and Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, which I studied in Educational Psychology and Development of Children and Adolescents (D094). Constructivism emphasizes that learners build understanding by connecting new experiences to existing knowledge. Vygotsky’s theory explains how students can accomplish tasks with guidance that they cannot yet complete independently (Western Governors University, n.d.-a). This supports my belief in combining exploration with instruction that prepares students for increasingly independent application.
The 5E instructional model, studied in Science Methods—Middle Grades General Science (C974), provides a framework for putting these beliefs into practice. The Explore phase gives students opportunities to investigate phenomena and develop questions, while the Elaborate phase asks them to apply and extend their understanding (Western Governors University, n.d.-c). For example, in a chemistry lesson focusing on physical properties and mixtures, students could investigate physical properties and later use those properties to design a method for separating a mixture. This sequence supports my belief that exploration can encourage curiosity and that application helps students deepen and transfer their learning.
Desired learning outcome
I want my students to develop scientific literacy, particularly the ability to evaluate scientific information and use evidence to support their conclusions. Students will demonstrate this by drawing a conclusion from a scientific text or data set, identifying relevant evidence, and explaining how that evidence supports their conclusion.
Instructional strategies
I will use regular claim-evidence-reasoning (CER) writing practice to help students draw conclusions from scientific information and explain how evidence supports those conclusions. Early in the school year, I will extensively model how to interpret a text or data set, select relevant evidence, and connect that evidence to a claim using scientific reasoning. As students become more comfortable and confident with the task, they will then move through guided practice toward independent responses, with feedback and opportunities to revise. During labs, students will use CER to answer the investigation question using their results. This repeated practice will help students develop increasingly well-supported scientific conclusions.
I will also use structured debates to develop these skills through speaking and listening. Informal topics, such as whether pizza is a sandwich, will introduce routines for stating claims, explaining support, and responding respectfully to disagreement. Students will then apply these routines to scientific questions using provided information or data from their investigations. They will support their claims with evidence, evaluate competing explanations, and revise their conclusions when needed. These discussions will help students examine the strength of evidence and articulate their reasoning as they increasingly practice applying those skills independently.
Assessment strategies
I will use exit tickets to regularly assess students’ progress toward the learning outcome. Students will respond to a short scientific text or data set by stating a conclusion, identifying relevant evidence, and explaining the connection between them. I will review responses for the defensibility of the conclusion, relevance of the evidence, and accuracy of the reasoning. These results will guide feedback, reteaching, and additional practice.
I will use individually written lab reports as summative assessments of students’ ability to apply these skills within a complete investigation. Students will interpret their results and construct a CER response answering the investigation question. An analytic rubric will assess the same three criteria used for exit tickets: a defensible conclusion, relevant and sufficient evidence, and scientifically accurate reasoning connecting the evidence to the conclusion. Individual reports will allow me to assess each student’s mastery even when students collect data collaboratively.
Relationships with stakeholders
I believe positive relationships with school stakeholders are essential to a cohesive, supportive school community. Trust and mutual respect make it easier to share information, address concerns, and work toward the shared goal of student learning and well-being. When the school community feels heard and valued, it is better able to bring together different perspectives, knowledge, and resources to support students. Building these relationships is therefore part of my responsibility as an educator.
To build positive relationships across the school community, I will communicate respectfully, listen carefully to concerns, and remain receptive to feedback and advice. I will be welcoming and encouraging while communicating expectations clearly and applying them fairly and consistently. I will share relevant information and resources, invite input when addressing shared concerns, and seek opportunities to work together in support of students. When disagreements arise, I will avoid gossip, discuss concerns constructively, and focus on shared goals. I will follow through on commitments and communicate progress so that my actions demonstrate reliability. These practices will help build trust, encourage collaboration, and strengthen a shared sense of responsibility for the school community.
References
Western Governors University. (n.d.-a). Educational psychology and development of children and adolescents (D094) [Course materials].
Western Governors University. (n.d.-b). Educational technology for teaching and learning (D092) [Course materials].
Western Governors University. (n.d.-c). Science methods—Middle grades general science (C974) [Course materials].
Western Governors University. (n.d.-d). Secondary disciplinary literacy (C728) [Course materials].
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