Arie Kazmierczak

Field II
Prof. Reilly
5/1/16
Personal Theory of Teaching, Learning, and Assessment II
In terms of my personal philosophys on teaching, learning, and assessment I dont
believe much has changed, I am still a huge advocate of the promotion of self-efficacy and I
believe in inquiry based learning in the classroom. I strongly believe that the we as teachers
should act as guides helping the students from getting lost along the way. All students have a
desire to learn about their interests or passions. If we as teacher could draw that into the
classroom it will not only cause them to be engaged in the lesson but it might spark a similar or
new interest. The best way to get students to open up about their interests and see what they are
learning is through formative assessment. This not only keeps the class moving forward but it
also you to set the pace of the class so that all students are where they need to be.
This semester I performed my observation hours at Scranton High School, and I learned
more about teaching than I expected too. First of I learned that I am the product of theoretical
teaching. What I mean is that in our lesson plans we always state write this on board in
regards to the objectives or questions, but we never actually write it out. So when it came time
for my live lesson I hardly used it and when I did it felt uncomfortable. That is the perfect word
for how I felt in that classroom, uncomfortable. All my life I have been a student who sat in a
desk and would present my projects to the front of the class. I even graduated from Scranton
High School, in fact the very room I taught in was the room I took the SATs in. But when it

came time for me to teach the class, it didnt feel right. Now once I started interacting with the
students and the room slipped out of my mind I was fine and all my training as a teacher kicked
in. I believe the lesson went well over all considering the unfamiliarity between me and the
students and the objectives of the lesson were met. One thing I will add to all future education
students is to not observe at their old high school, although was nice to see old teachers, it
created mixed feelings for when I actually had to teach in front of students.
For my lesson I had students create a weather map slider. Which was a great idea on
paper and in theory. Sadly, I did not utilize it to its full potential because I overestimated the
students abilities. After observing the class for a few days prior to the lesson, I knew the
majority of the information on the weather map slider was review. Because of this I forgot to
answer the questions as a class. In this process I lost the attention of some of the students.
As I mentioned above I learned a great deal about actually teaching. Although classroom
mini lessons are great. I have learned that I need to be more dynamic in the classroom and really
make it my own. This, I feel, will not only make me more comfortable teaching but it will allow
me to focus more on the needs of the students and not myself. Other things I would like to
incorporate into my lesson would be more technology such as computers and a stronger use of
the smartboards. I have learned many things this semester, and I look forward to more teaching
experiences and interactions so that I may be the best teacher I can possibly be.