In directing the young minds of America, my teaching philosophy is to inspire students to seek their own knowledge in whatever subject they feel inspires them. I believe that the goal of education is not to cram information into a student's head, but rather to inspire them to learn more about a subject, and develop methods to obtain that information. Each student brings with them a past, both educationally and personally, and as their educator, it is my job to make sure they leave knowing a bit more about the sciences, and also leave with a better sense of community created in the classroom. I believe this is the best method to see a future where society can come from a place of mutual understanding, even though we all come from different cultural and economic backgrounds.

      I am a believer in the constructivist method of teaching students, where I allow them to state misconceptions that they may hold in regards to science, and present them with experiments to not only confront those misconceptions, but to challenge them to think using prior knowledge to build a new framework on knowledge in their minds. This not only includes innovative and interesting experiments, but the opportunity to work in groups to create a more collaborative learning environment. Students can then depend on each other to come up with new ideas, interesting perspectives, and reach an answer that is able to explain scientific phenomena accurately. Students should be challenged to understand why those answers are correct through experimentation and collaborative effort.

     Because an educator's efforts in the classroom will be reflected in how their students perform, I also believe that educators should constantly seek knowledge just as we want our students to do the same. We should strive to keep our curiosity about science alive, as our enthusiasm in the classroom is often linked to how students perceive the material. In addition, we should be confident that we are imparting them with the correct information, and show them that we as teachers may not have all the answers, and they should feel empowered to seek out the answers themselves.

      Being a person of color from a lower socioeconomic background, I also feel that it is important for students who are like myself to have a role model that will demonstrate to them that they are also able to achieve, and that negative stereotypes can only affect you if your mindset is closed. Making sure that I keep a growth-minded culture in my classroom is also important, because students who are perceived negatively by stereotypes are less likely to be affected when those stereotype threats are presented. Something as simple as reminding girls that they are in fact female can affect their scores if they are susceptible to this stereotype threat. As an educator, I would like to mitigate that for all groups as much as possible.

      Giving students the control and agency with their education is powerful, as it creates students who are confident, knowledge-seeking individuals. By creating a culture in my classroom that students are capable of creating knowledge, collaborating, and are allowed to ask questions that require them to utilize tools given to them to find the answers, I hope students will come out of my classroom not only more intelligent in the scientific regard, but with regards to how they see the world and interact with it. They will hopefully begin as novices, and begin to take the path of an expert in their thinking by the time they leave my classroom.