Mission Statement

Education is a cooperative effort of community, administrators, teachers, parents and students. The objective of education should be to better the student’s life by teaching them critical thinking skills using best practices and technological advances so they may teach themselves according to their own individual capacity and ability. When true learning takes place, students gain confidence to face new challenges and attain higher goals for themselves life-long.

The student – teacher interaction is a delicate, yet, viable indicator of learning. The tangible progress a student makes in his or her education will be a direct result of this relationship. Therefore, we can look at teachers and students as the primary agents of learning in a "school" setting.

Teachers should be highly qualified to teach subject area and content in a way that will motivate a student to learn. It is the teacher’s responsibility to adjust and alter his or her teaching strategies to motivate the individual student’s learning. If a student does not succeed with one teaching method, the teacher should adjust his or her method of teaching. Technology greatly enhances differentiation especially in a blended classroom approach. On the other hand, one must also recognize factors such as class size, academic level and capability, student responsibility, parental influence and family background, attendance, and the present emotional status of a student.

Education has profited because teachers have been free to be “individualistic” in their teaching methods. If taken to an extreme, a teacher could overstep the academic freedom endowed to him or her. However, forcing an individual teacher into another more experienced teacher’s “mold” damages the teacher’s creativity, motivation and self worth, hindering the potential growth that a developing teacher can attain to with experience. With ever progressing research strategies and technology, teaching is limited only by self-motivation.

Education should promote excellence, self-motivation, discipline and achievement firstly in the instructor as a pattern to the students and secondly in student advancement and progress of learning. When teachers stop advancing themselves, the learning process is endangered. For instance, students may achieve objective success, yet fall short in the process of learning to excel, motivate and discipline themselves for the long run. At times I have seen achievement stressed and the other attributes minimized. I believe that teaching motivation, discipline and striving for excellence will automatically produce achievement. However, achievement will not necessarily produce the other attributes in a tangible, consistent manner.

Below, I have listed several best practices that I have observed:

Students must be taught their responsibility in the learning process. It is their responsibility to motivate themselves in order to achieve a satisfactory grade. It is the student’s responsibility to cooperate with their teacher and adjust to teacher expectations within reason. It is their responsibility to follow directions, complete assignments, and obtain back work.

Teachers must be receptive to students and make every effort to motivate a student in the optimal method for a particular student especially using technology and a blended approach. Teachers should establish proper, reasonable expectations for their students. It is important to note that the lower a teacher’s expectations, the lower student learning.

The interaction of many human factors is important to the learning process. When sound communication is established between parent, child, and teacher, education and learning will be enhanced.

Teaching Strategies