Tim Zingers Learning Theory Throughout my years as an education student and educator, I have been exposed to many new

experiences that have shaped my way of thinking as an educator. Classroom experiences, field trips, teacher observations, writing units, and tutoring have helped shape my learning theory enormously. These experiences have allowed me to discover that I am a constructivist, I value the integration of content areas through minds-on activities, the alignment of curriculum to standards, the use of multiple authentic assessments, and continued professional development. My curriculum supports the notion that students should construct their own understandings of content. Doing this allows them to sort their new knowledge in ways that they will be able to understand. By having students construct their understandings, they take ownership of them and are more interested in what they are learning. A large part of constructivism that I value is the use of inquiry based activities. In college, I experienced the power of inquiry on student learning. These experiences helped me build an understanding of the underlying concepts of large topics and have helped me retain the information. My professors facilitated my learning using student centered experiences instead of simply telling me the facts and information. I use the same teaching pedagogy as used in these experiences because it helps nurture critical thinking and problem solving in students. I am a big proponent of hands-on activities, but I have come to realize that not all handson activities are beneficial to students. Teachers need to ensure that hands-on activities are also minds-on activities. Students must know what they are expected to learn from the activities they do and how they must think during the experience in order to build their understanding of the essential questions of the unit. Teachers must know what content the hands-on activities will teach and how they align with the objectives of the lesson.

As an educator, I have experience writing curriculum using the Backward Design approach. This approach insures that I am clear on what I want students to learn, how I will assess if they have learned it, and what experiences are needed to reach my learning goals. Alignment helps me reach my learning goals by giving me a clear direction of what to teach and how to determine if my students have learned it. I believe the best way to align curriculum is by ensuring the Common Core State Standards, learning objectives, learning experiences, and assessments align with each other. This will reassure students that everything they are learning has a purpose and will be assessed instead of having students guess what the teacher will assess them on. Students need to be assessed in multiple authentic ways during a unit. This can include informal formative, formal formative, and summative assessments. By using multiple authentic assessments, a teacher ensures that the assessments meet the learning styles of all students. As an educator I strive to better myself through the use of professional development. This includes attending conferences such as the Fall Science Update, continuing to take education classes post-graduation, doing research into new teaching techniques, and self-reflection. Conferences are very beneficial because they allow teachers to talk to other teachers and learn about their ideas and teaching methods. Education classes and research allow me to discover new pedagogical approaches to teaching and expand my knowledge on how to best meet my students needs. Self-reflection is very important to me because I know I can always improve my teaching. It allows me to see what went well and what did not go well with my lessons and allows me time to think about more effective ways of teaching the content. As a teacher, I never want to be comfortable with my teaching approach. Becoming comfortable will signify that I have nothing to improve on and there are always ways an educator can improve. I value students taking ownership of their learning by constructing their knowledge with

facilitation from the teacher, using minds-on activities, aligning every component in a lesson around the learning objectives based on the Common Core State Standards, and continuing to grow as a teacher through professional development. Through implementing what I value about education in my classroom, I will be able to prepare students with the understandings they need in order to be critical thinkers and problem solvers in todays society.