Christina Frose

My Teaching Philosophy
One of my greatest goals as a teacher will be to help students
become intrinsically motivated to learn. I aim to teach in a way that
allows my students to become invested in what they are learning, and
to foster a desire to better themselves. It is my hope that my students
will become lifelong learners that see the value in education, and that
does not always mean in institutional settings. I think an important
factor in helping students become intrinsically motivated is to create
an assessment rich learning environment.
Using ideas from Joe Bower and the Critical Thinking Consortium,
my classroom will be a place that emphasizes personal progress, self
assessment, and differentiated projects to exhibit learning. Through
continual formative assessment, my students will know what areas
they can improve in and where they are competent. This will be
completed through a variety of exit slips, journal writing, and
assignments. When completing larger projects, students will be given
techniques to self assess their work, and this may be completed
through peer assessment as practice. Being able to reflect on and
assess your own work is a very applicable life skill to possess. In a
classroom where the emphasis is more on learning than on grades, self
assessment can also be a tool used to judge progress. Students
judging their own work over the term to see how they have progressed
through the semester might make them more self aware. I believe it
will also be important to incorporate differentiated instruction into my
classroom. I will differentiate content, process and products to best fit
my students, although my focus will be on having options for how
students can show what they have learned. Having my students
understand that fair is not always equal will be key to their intrinsic
motivation. Some students will be at the top and might know most of
the material I am teaching, however they should still be appropriately
challenged to learn. When the focus is more on each individual
student showing progress from his or her starting point, education
becomes more about learning and less about grades.
I strongly believe that critical thinking skills are essential to
sustained internal motivation as well as being applicable in a wide
variety of real life situations. As a teacher I will foster critical thinking
skills in my classrooms through continued assessment and
opportunities for bettering ones grades. I also plan on fostering
discussions in my classrooms, where students might gain insights from
other students critical thinking. Through assessment I will also
emphasize reasoning behind arguments, ideas, theories, and content,
not just that they know it. I want my students to show me how they
know it, and through their thoughts about how they know something to
be true, hopefully critical thinking skills will develop. Lastly, I will

Christina Frose
demonstrate to my students how statistics and research can be
misleading with an example that hits close to home for the class
demographic. This will hopefully get them thinking more critically of
the news and media they are surrounded by on a day to day basis.
My future classrooms will have more diversity in them than I was
ever exposed to as a student, and it is my goal to appreciate and in
some cases help with that diversity appropriately. My classroom will be
a place where fair is not equal, it is what everyone needs in order to
succeed. As well, differences that people might be discriminated
against for will be addressed and learned about. Through this I will
attempt to educate my students on social injustice, and hopefully
make them more compassionate towards their classmates as well as
the rest of society. Also, through differentiating instruction I plan on
utilizing field trips and lab time to appeal to a variety of student
interests and learning styles.
With my experience in biology and chemistry, as well as the
social sciences, I wish to make science come alive for my students. By
that I mean, I want them to relate what we learn about in the textbook
and in class to real life. I aim to spend lots of time in labs and outside
the classroom to better my students understanding of concepts. As
well, I think it is very important to include cross curricular projects
wherever possible. I think that cross curricular projects help students
see connections between what they are learning and real life. In the
sciences I also believe it is very important to emphasize critical
thinking skills through analysis of research. The sooner students
understand concepts such as validity and reliability in research, the
sooner they will begin to think critically about information given to
them. Lastly, I think it is essential to be very organized far in advance,
regardless of the subject you are teaching. If I am organized far ahead
of time, I can know if I can afford to make time for special projects or
ideas when they arise in the short term.
Technology can be very beneficial in todays classrooms to
support learning, and I aim to have my students use it as a tool to
learn through. Technology needs to be used carefully so that it most
benefits my students; just using the smartboard for powerpoints is not
effective. With that in mind, I still need to learn much more about using
technology in the classroom through my university classes. Because
we are living in an age of high technological advancement, it will be
essential to continue learning new strategies and technologies to be
used in my classroom.
I will make a difference for my students through support of
extracurricular activities. I think it is very important for young people
to have hobbies and interests outside of the classroom, and I plan to
use my knowledge and experience in volleyball to help foster interest
in sport. I have 3 seasons of coaching volleyball, as well as two years
of college playing experience from which to draw knowledge from. In

Christina Frose
the future I also plan on pursuing a Masters degree in Educational
Psychology, which will allow me to further help students outside of the
classroom.