User:Jroer001

'About Me'

Hello, my name is Justin and I am currently a CTE teacher at Warwick High School in Newport News, VA. I worked for The Hershey Company for five years and then decided to change careers to become a teacher. I am currently taking course in order to receive my full teaching license.

My Educational Philosophy

When I worked at Hershey, I consistently saw young people who were leaving high school without the skills necessary to be successful in the corporate world. I believe in showing students how they can take what they have learned in all of their courses and apply it to real world scenarios. I believe that all students can learn and be successful in their post secondary endeavors if they find what their skills are and match it to what type of job or career interests them. I feel it is my responsibility to prepare and provide the students with the skills they will need in order to be ready to take advantage of career opportunities.

I believe in facilitating a high level of parental involvement in my classes. This is one of the main keys to having a successful class in the areas of discipline and instruction. I have seen that the students who have parents who are involved in their academic endeavors perform far better than those who don't.

I am a Career and Technical Education teacher, so I use technology every day in my class. We use computers, an LCD projector, podcasts, blogs, Microsoft Office 2008, and many more software applications to facilitate the learning experience. I believe in having a class with a high level of student engagement and the technology is what is used to accomplish this. It is always exciting to see the student's eyes light up when they get the opportunity to utilize a new piece of technology. Having access to this technology is what will enable the students to be successful in the 21st Century job market. I beleieve in utilizing differentiated instruction strategies in my classroom. This doesn't mean that I give each student a different way to complete every assignment, but it does mean that I try to vary the types and ways to complete different assignments throughout the year which will allow all students to have a chance to be successful depending on how they learn. I also give my special needs and ESOL students the same assignments I give the rest of the class, but I do try to walk around and provide them with additional help in order for them to be successful. I have found that these students can perform very well and be successful with many, if not all, of the assignments when they are given the extra instruction and help they need.

Finally, I assess my students performance based off of tests, quizzes, projects, classwork, and homework. I believe in trying to find as many ways to assess my students work as possible because I know that not only do students learn different, but they also have their strengths and weaknesses in different forms of assessment. For instance, in the computer courses I teach, I have students who can understand how to complete assignments on the computer and do fantastic projects, but they don't test well. If they show me that they can perform the activity that I am teaching, is that not as good or better than writing it down on a test? By differentiating the ways that I assess students work, I can ensure that there is a more accurate assessment of what they are learning and achieving.