Molly Rose B.

Powers

Philosophy of Teaching & Learning

As a secondary education teacher, my goal is to inspire my students in a similar way to

how my own Latin teachers inspired me with their obvious passion for teaching and
learning. I want my students to feel valued and important both as individuals and as a
class, and I want them to feel open to sharing their thoughts. My students will be
encouraged to form connections with each other and work in groups (when possible) so
they can hear a variety of perspectives from their classmates. Positive relationships
between classmates are important, especially at the secondary level, and will help
students gain confidence in themselves. Self-confidence and positive peer relationships
help students feel more confident in their knowledge and can encourage them to feel
comfortable sharing their thoughts and answering questions even if they aren’t sure that
they are correct.

I want to get to know my students and build connections with them and help them feel
comfortable communicating with each other and with me about their thoughts, feelings,
and needs, whether academic or more personal. I aspire to teach my students clear
communication and problem-solving skills that they will use throughout their lives. My
classroom will be a place of mutual respect for my students and I, and I will work to
balance compassion and understanding for the well-being of my students with my
expectations for and of them. While I understand that things happen to everyone, and
want to help my students as they need, I will continue encouraging them to do their
absolute best.

In order to support my connections with my students, I will be transparent with them

about the difficulty of a concept or an assignment, whether by providing examples from
when I learned that concept or based on feedback from prior classes. If a homework
assignment will be particularly hard, I will tell my students to do their best on it for 20-
30 minutes or until they finish it and remind them that we can review the most difficult
questions in class. I also will tell my students that although I am the teacher, I am by no
means the sole expert in my field. I will be learning from them as much as they are
learning from me, if not more. One way I will learn from my students is by offering them
opportunities for daily feedback, whether anonymous or not. This feedback could be
part of an end-of-class activity, a question on their tests, or a question I ask at the end of
each unit. I will use their feedback to adjust the lessons in the unit we just completed as
well as determine what changes I could make to the next unit’s plans to be most effective
in helping my students learn.

I will design my assessments to be effective and accurate for all my students and adjust
my assessments throughout the year based on what works best for them and allows
them to accurately display their knowledge. I will work to make sure my lessons are
engaging so that my students love Latin and want to put in the effort to learn more. I
will make sure to include a variety of activities so that all students are able to learn in
the way that works best for them and so they find ways to enjoy the content and the
class.