EDTE 400: Frame of Reference Brian Heese and Catherine Grunlund Heidi Anderson November 27, 2013

I am a mother of two boys who have graduated from High School, I have tutored and continue to tutor math to over 60 students in the past 8 years. I have been an Educational Assistant for the past 5 years. My philosophy has changed several times. For 20 years, I have experienced numerous hours in the classroom, making connections with many children, recognizing and working with many kinds of behaviours. As I reflect on my beliefs about teaching and learning, I find that my goals are to promote positive learning, engage students by sharing my enthusiasm for learning and provide a solid foundation for life-long learning. I accomplish this goal by offering a wide variety of strategies based on how learners think, by celebrating diversity, by considering the curriculum & instructional planning and by using a variety of assessments; formative, interim and summative. I teach strategies and apply them by first learning how the students learn, how they think individually as a learner, and what kind of learners they are. Knowing the level they are at shapes my lesson plans. I will routinely have quick writing moments. Their writings will provide me with considerations in creating my lesson plans. I know there are many learning theories, I consider behavioural principles important. I routinely use active learning by using the strategy: think-pair-share. I believe it is important not only to consider their learning style, but different cultures as well. I celebrate diversity by consistently considering this in creating my lesson plans. I value the curriculum by approaching Instructional Lesson Plans with different models in mind such as; behavioural, cognitive and a constructivist model. I do this through planning and implementing lessons that have a clear objective, strategies for engagement, and use anticipation for engagement. I also plan to use assessments to measure students levels of learning.

I assess in a number of ways such as: quizzes, exams, I will use rubrics, checklists, projects, portfolios, performance, and presentations. Because of all the years I spent in the school environment, my passion has only grown stronger. I love to learn myself, and I feel the desire to pass it on to other learners. Having principles, empathy, consideration, enthusiasm and passion, I make connections with my learners so they have passion to become lifelong learners.