As a science teacher, my instructional strategies must include hands-on activities such as utilizing laboratory exercises, solving problems, and using the Internet to collect scientific data.  I must be able to help students to publish their ideas in the form of a report or presentation.  I believe in helping students to develop critical thinking skills.  As a teacher, I need to connect students to the real life answers to classroom questions whether students are on a field trip or in the lab.  During my DT unit, we have seven hands-on lab experiments and one field trip to test water quality in our community watershed.  My students publish their student work samples on my blog.  For critical thinking, for every experiment, my students are required to analyze results and propose new questions for future experiment.

I believe that teachers must provide cooperative and collaborative learning activities.  A teacher must develop strategies for involving all students in meaningful learning activities.  A teacher must be able to assess students for their strengths and weaknesses and help them improve.  Before I began the unit, I created and administered a pre-assessment to assess students’ prior knowledge.  My lesson plan, academic monitoring, and pacing were heavily influenced by the pre-assessment.  As a teacher, I must provide students with structure and modeling as well as freedom and responsibilities. As a teacher, I must treat all students equally with respect and be able to establish trust with students, build friendships, and yet keep professional distance.  According to my host teacher, I am a great intern, very hard working, and always striving to improve.  I relate well to students, and I am a good model for students.

I also believe that a good teacher is one who makes his or herself progressively unnecessary.  I think of myself as a resource that is there to “facilitate” students’ learning and not to handout to students the answers to the questions. I must teach students how to learn and not just what to memorize.  I will encourage students think for themselves and become confident in expressing their own ideas with solid reasoning behind their ideas.  My DT is not a passive, encyclopedic approach to science.  My DT lesson plans are full of active involvement and inquiry learning.

In conclusion, an effective teacher must be able to use both traditional and non-traditional instructional and communication strategies.  As a teacher, I must collaborate with other professionals and parents in both a traditional and a non-traditional approach in order to provide students a complete learning environment.  I must be able to use the technology to accommodate various learning styles, to communicate with parents, and to recruit virtual parents and professional volunteers who can help students with homework online or provide professional advice.