Educational Philosophy Statement

I absolutely love being an educator. With twenty-one years of teaching experience, I can think of no profession that is more rewarding. This manifests itself in my teaching with a warm, safe and loving learning environment. I have always held myself accountable for creating a love of school and a love of learning within my students. These are my primary goals as an educator because I believe they are the foundations that lead to becoming a successful student and a well-rounded citizen. As I process and reflect on the new CCSS and 21st century learning skills, I find that my own pedagogy aligns well with these standards. Their written articulation encompasses good teaching and learning practices that are beneficial not only for K-12 students

Teaching within the low SES and high ELL population demographics that make up PSUSD enabled me to hone my skills in meeting the needs of second language learners. Additionally, teaching Kindergarten for over a decade required me to constantly use my strong organizational skills, SDAIE strategies, best classroom management practices, and differentiated instruction for all these young, new to school students. While working within the time constraints of a classroom day, I feel it is the responsibility of all teachers to meet the individual needs of the students. This includes, not only using intervention and prevention techniques for students below grade level, but also using advanced, more in-depth learning to foster GATE students. Every decision that is made during planning should be carefully considered to increase learning. In order to accomplish this, I believe it is necessary to use on-going assessments, collaborative planning, and differentiated instruction. My daily instruction was based upon data-driven assessments, while still addressing the adopted curriculum and the new Common Core Standards. I often lead grade level,collaborative planning sessions, based on research-proven teaching strategies and student data. I am currently leading my staff through

I truly feel that education begins at home, and that parents are our students' first and most influential teachers. My two favorite weeks of school are fall and spring parent / teacher conferences because it is a chance to meet with the families and celebrate their child's accomplishments as well as to plan next steps in their child's learning. I always approach this process in a factual way: here is the standard, here is the assessment that measures the standard, here is the child's performance on the assessment, here are some tools for practice of the next learning to use at home. By establishing a good communication between home and school, and in sharing my wealth of knowledge and experience, the families of my students were able to better reinforce the learning at home and responded well to this open communication. I value a culture where mistakes are valued and are an integral part of the learning process. I made it a point to encourage my parents, and now my teachers, to acknowledge their mistakes in front of the children and to show the students that it is okay and beneficial to work through mistakes. Presently, I have had the pleasure of working closely with my school's Parent Advocates to develop digital resources for our families of English