Education Philosophy

The essence of my education philosophy is rooted in the principle of respect. I have one rule in my classroom: respect. I have found that it is more valuable to instill a value or principle rather than a lengthy list of "don't do this..." Beyond simply a classroom management tool, the principle of respect extends to the literature we read in my classroom, the way I approach writing, and the guiding principle in group projects.

Under this disclaimer, I have created and posted my educational philosophy to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUT__gmUFMs. Also, if interested, feel welcome to check out some of the performances my students put on regarding persecution as we read The Crucible.

Teaching Engergy Conservation: A Reflection

Thoughts on Teaching
After presenting my PowerPoint on energy conservation the following thoughts came to mind:

Weaknesses: What I can work on in future presentations.

• I need to explain more of what is in my PowerPoint.
• To make a PowerPoint presentation effective in a classroom it needs to be interactive.
• I need to provide more background into the topic.
• For it to be more effective, I need to provide space for students to ask questions.

Strengths: What worked in my presentation.

• Students saw me as a learner-on the same level as each of them.
• The presentation offered an example for a media analysis project that I later introduced.
• My language was fairly clear, easing going and accessible.
• To my knowledge, there were few distracting and idiosyncratic quirks. Though I am known for my long pauses.

Earlier this year my students completed a taking acton unit, in which they chose a topic to research and take action on with their writing. In the future, I will use this PowerPoint as an example for how they can literally take action and create subtle change that can grow exponentially depending upon their commitment.

Additionally, I was reticent to use PowerPoint and this project provided the impetus for me to overcome this reticence. Although I don't anticipate using PowerPoints pervasively in the future, I do see how they can be an effective teaching tool. This in itself is a success.

Energy Conservation Reflection

Beginning with the question, how would walking to school rather than driving save energy?, I delved into my energy conservation project. I first determined the distance to my school from my house (approx. 1 mi.). With this information I walked to and from the school to determine the time it would take (approx 20 min. each way). Finally, I assessed what was at the time the price of gasoline ($3.19) . And then, for one week I walked to school rather than drove.

Although this one week experiment had very little affect, I only saved one gallon of gas, I at least had the feeling that I was making a choice. This choice, as well as the assignment prompt, provided the impetus to question whether or not a lifestyle change would have a greater impact. Playing the what if game with Microsoft Excel, I found that over time I would save energy in the form of gallons conserved.

Additionally, and all the more fascinating and powerful, the impact that convincing a handful of friends would have increased the energy savings, yet convincing a small community-only 100 people-would have dramatic effects over a one year period. Over a one year period, if I was able to convince 100 people, who live within a mile of their work, to drive, we would conserve 5200 gallons of gas and save over $16000! For further analysis of the figures check out the following link http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pkqqxJ195_WFr4B-W3qs7cA
Finally, I created a nifty PowerPoint presentation that visually brings attention to the above information as well. Check out the link http://www.slideshare.net/clearprose

Stay tuned for a reflection on actually presenting my PowerPoint to my classes.