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| PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING |
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My philosophy of teaching has evolved over the years and been rethought many times, but always there remains a dedication to a philosophy that’s fair, flexible, and challenging to my students. As a professional educator I understand my primary concern should be the intellectual progress of my students, but as a scientist I’m eager to share my content knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject. As a science educator my duty is to help students develop content area literacy and improve their communication and comprehension skills, but as a person I just want my students to be successful in life. My experiences as both an professional educator and science professional have given me the unique opportunity to mold my diverse experiences together in the classroom to product that can be shared with my students. In a nutshell, the top five fundamentals of my teaching philosophy are: show enthusiasm and personal interest in the subject, be a positive motivator, encourage independent thinking, adapt lessons to represent the diverse cultures of my students, accommodate lessons to meet the individual needs of my students, and be prepared in the classroom so my students receive a professional level of education.
My advantage in the classroom is technology and I choose to integrate technology into my lessons at all cost. In fact, one of the first questions I ask my students at the start of a new topic is “How can you use technology to understand this topic?” In my opinion, comprehending technology is as important in today’s society as verbal communication or interpersonal skills. For students to be successful in today’s professions they need more than just an astounding level of basic content knowledge and effective communication skills, they need technical process skills, an understanding of relevant technology, group cooperation skills, and fundamental time-management skills. Yet, the typical and seriously common lecture-based instructional methods are not adequate to prepare students for those minimum job requirements. I do my best to prepare students for science-related professions by developing instructional curricula that include activities specifically meant to foster process skills and comprehension of standard technology such as computers, word processors, and data analysis and acquisition tools. From a personal perspective I rely on my past research and diverse job experiences to provide my students with vocational training of “real” world skills, in addition to basic content knowledge, so that as a professional I can provide my students with an education for which they are entitled.
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| COLLEGE INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL |
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I wanted to encourage an active learning environment in the Biology course I taught at the University of Florida, so I developed a course guide (see below) that would simplify the note-taking process, while engaging students in the lectures through group activities, discussions, debates, and investigations of current issues in science with the assistance of online media (videos, animations, case studies). The course guide shown below is the instructor version, which includes everything students see during lecture except for photos, videos, and animations which are only viewable through the online lecture application (see link below). The version of the lecture guide students use is a truncated copy of the instructor version, in which there is much less text and the diagrams are unlabelled, as it is intended that students will fill in the blanks as they take notes.
Hulen KG, 2009. BIOLOGY: Cells, Genetics, and Organisms. Instructor Version. Fourth Edition.
Self-published. Printed and binded by Target Copy Center, Gainesville, FL.
400+ pages, includes, lecture notes, review questions, 100+ custom drawings, and activity worksheets
Online lectures with audio/video recordings of me lecturing. - This is a FLASH application I developed to synchronize my lecture slides with the actual video recordings of my lectures. The lecture slides are not powerpoint, but slides created in FLASH, which also match the lecture outline students purchase for my class (the one referenced in the document above that you can't open without a password). However, if you browse the application you can see all the text and images I used in my lectures.
Sample Course Syllabus (Fall 2008 - Biology)
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| HIGH SCHOOL INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL |
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USING TECHNOLOGY
Many forms of technology can be effective in establishing an atmosphere of active learning in the classroom, such as, web-based projects and online simulations, multi-media lecture presentations, videos, and lab equipment (microscopes, spectrophotometer, etc). As both a developer and avid user of web-based applications, I'm always looking for ways to develop my students' technology literacy skills. Listed below are a few lesson plans I developed to engage students in using technology.
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DIFFERENTIAL INSTRUCTION
Differential instruction in the classroom not only helps students with different needs to make better sense of the content, but also gives them new opportunities to demonstrate what they have learned. Listed below are a few examples of differentiated lessons I developed for use in an Honors or AP Biology class. These lessons focus specifically on content and learning environment by engaging students in inquiry, cooperative learning, group discussions and intellectual competition.
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WET LABS AND DEMONSTRATIONS
Every High School Biology class should have plenty of labs and demonstrations planned in the curriculum, since; those are the activities students seem to remember most. I've listed four lessons that have either a demonstration or lab component. In those examples, demonstrations are used to either introduce new topic or reinforce concepts already discussed in class; whereas, labs are used to foster the development and practice of process skills and student cooperation.
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GLOBAL STUDIES
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EXTRA CREDIT
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| History of Life and Evolution Review Game: |
| Celebrating Charles Darwin's birthday is one way to provide students with an opportunity to earn extra credit points while giving them a chance to showcase their unique, and individual talent (Ex. Baking a cake of the galapagos islands, Writing a short story or sketching a portrait of Charles Darwin). |
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