My pedagogical Creed

 

 

As a teacher, it is my mission to produce positive members in today’s society. These students will become future leaders of America’s industry.  I need to make sure they have the required and necessary skills to make it in the industry.  Not only will they have what it takes to accomplish the goal, but they will also have the skills required to get through life.

 

Growing up in an Amish community, I wasn’t privileged with a wealthy high school, we had to make do with what we had or what was given to us.  I learned multiple skills on old machines.  I often wondered what I could have learned if I was awarded an opportunity to use state of the art technology.  My instructor did the best that he could within his means.  Because of this, I have the burning passion to show students the skills that I had to learn on my own.  My Industrial Arts instructor taught all of the students at Arthur High School through hands-on and project-based learning.

 

Majority of students that I have come across learn this way.  Another thing that I have learned is that not all students learn the same as me or the next student.  Every human learns a different way and at a different pace.  It is my job, as an instructor, to find a happy medium for all students.  I have to make sure everything is balanced and equal.  A yin to and yang if you will.  In my current classroom, you will find my lessons have four parts: Audio, Visual, Hands On and Project Based.

 

Each student will listen to me explain what is going on in                                      the current lesson.  While I am explaining what is going                                        on, the lesson is on the board behind me for those who                                      learn best by reading.  After the lesson is completed, the                                students then have to watch me conduct the lab, then                                 conduct the lab themselves.  As the students get older                                       they design their own labs to prove the theories at hand.                                    For example, a senior has to pick a project to build while                           welding.  Through these methods, I achieve my goal of                                    every student learning the lesson and at the same time.                                         By the students learning my content through my technology integrated pedagogy, they are well on their way to becoming prominent members of society.

 

As an Industrial Technology instructor, it is hard for me to accurately grade or judge a student on something they have never done before.  Where were the renaissance masters when they first started out, they had to practice and learn.  But I can judge students on their work ethic and their want for knowledge.  Once the first principals are learned then I can give the student a rubric of what I am grading on the overall look, time management, principles of technology, safety and cleanliness.  These are all examples of what I can grade on.  Once the student has grown in the classroom, then I can add more rigor, tighten down the screws if you will, raise the bar.  Now I can fairly grade the student on their work as well as the safety, cleanliness and amount of help by me is required (can they apply the knowledge with no help by me?).

 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Teaching is important to me because I look back on my educational career and I see so much that I have missed out on and so much that I could not have.  These aspects could have helped me become a better member of society and I do not want anyone to miss the opportunities that I did.  When I look back on it, I know what needs to be learned and I know why it needs to be learned.  I can give the students the affordances that I did not have.  I can teach the students what I wasn’t taught. 

 

Everything that I have learned, I have learned because I made the mistakes to learn the lessons.  I now can pass along my experiences to those who want it and they do not have to make the same mistakes that I made.  I want people to learn from my experiences, that is why I am a teacher.