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Mrs. Emily Quinty
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Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts
Class Information:
Students per Class: 25 per class, 100 total
Class Description:
We are diving into three expeditions this year: 1) Fire: Friend or Foe? -- A deep look at how fire affects forest ecology, how fire behaves, and how and why humans mitigate fire. 2) The Search for Extraterrestrial Life -- Explore the questions: What is life? How is life so diverse? Why is Earth special? How would you know if you found life on another planet? 3) "Rock and Roll" -- Exploring the geological records at Dinosaur Ridge, the global effects of Tsunamis, and energy conservation.
Position:
Science Teacher
Needs:
Our students come from a very low socio-economic background and would greatly benefit from a technology infused science classroom. They aspire to go to college and need experience using a variety of software programs, navigating the internet, and publicly presenting their findings using projectors and dynamic presentation software.
My Philosophy:
I think perhaps one of the most important things teachers need to be able to do to meet the needs of all students is to build meaningful relationships with them. I focus my attention on developing these authentic relationships with students and making sure they know I believe that they bring rich and essential cultural and linguistic resources, which are assets to be cherished, to the classroom. Building relationships requires listening, being observant, being respectful and showing genuine curiosity. Teachers must cultivate this belief in students as well by encouraging and modeling compassion, confidence, mutual respect and transparency about beliefs. ----- The sense of community and the establishment of a safe-haven are vital components of a thriving classroom. Strong relationships between teacher and students as well as students and their peers are the foundation to building this community atmosphere. We must explore methods of incorporating explicit, well-defined, high expectations and routines to establish and maintain our classroom community. Students who feel safe to express their thoughts and ideas are more likely to engage in questioning the world around them. This is particularly true in a science class in which students must openly share their predictions, conclusions and theories without fear, especially for women in science who are often silenced and less willing to take these risks. It is my goal to help instill the attributes of trusting others, of believing that one’s involvement matters, and of understanding and questioning resistance and institutional barriers to change. To do this, I must be aware of my power, knowledge, and identity, as well as that of the learners, and help them cultivate self-awareness. ----- All students, especially women and diverse learners, deserve to join in the conversation of science because they have unique words of insight to contribute, without which the dialogue will be incomplete. To do this, we must engage students in a diverse set of culturally responsive, authentic, relevant, literacy and technology infused projects and activities that promote critical thinking and a deepened understanding of science. These projects allow students to not only build skills that scientists use, but also develop a love for learning. The expansion of their scientific reasoning requires the ability to read and comprehend, as well as the ability to express ideas and articulate reasoning in writing. Thus, the success of the students in my classes depends on learning and understanding science concepts, math and literacy. ----- The education of all students in our community, a beautiful tapestry of diversity, will bring about a world-embracing surge of new innovations, fresh perspectives and creative solutions to problems in all fields and endeavors. Education for all implies the need for differentiation — searching for patterns. There are patterns in background knowledge and in how students build background knowledge — language skills, special needs, cultural background, multiple intelligences, literacy level, math level, stability of life outside of school, ability and willingness to take risks, etc. Differentiation means meeting the needs of all students and embracing and celebrating their diversity. It means recognizing what students know and figuring out the right scaffolding to help them build their background knowledge. ----- I believe that the purpose of education is very complex and includes learning how to communicate, think, collaborate, deal with conflict, find a niche in the world, participate in society, embrace diversity, eliminate prejudice, serve humanity, think critically about the world, become literate in both the world and in language, ask why, learn morals, cultivate latent gems, experiment to better understand the physical world, become agents of change, build on past learning, and strengthen funds of knowledge. I hope to continue to foster relationships with my students that bring about social justice and inspire agents of change because they have the confidence and competence to embrace and utilize their assets and resources.