These videos are placed here as an effort to illustrate some of the core aspects of my teaching philosophy, which include:

1. High expectations for all students
2. Building a collaborative and open classroom community
3. A curriculum where language and content reinforce each other
4. Meeting the diverse needs of students through meaningful scaffolding
5. Synthesis through review games
6. Developing academic literacy
7. Community Involvement

1.Video Round: 

This video illustrates several aspects of my teaching philosophy: High expectations for all students, building a collaborative classroom community, a curriculum where language and content are mutually reinforcing, and synthesizing through review games. This video is very representative of my classroom and philosophy, it includes reflective bell-work, review games that are multi-disciplinary and collaborative, and a final assignment as an exit slip.

2. Community Involvement:

Throughout the year, whenever there was a cultural event: day of the dead, three kings day, Saint Patrick’s day, etc. I always sought to incorporate elements of the local Worcester community. This video is an example of this, and is me interviewing a Mexican woman who lives and owns a business in Worcester. Sra. Mercedes bakes traditional day of the dead bread, as well as traditional rosca de reyes (for epiphany). This interview was a part of our unit on the day of the dead, students had to answer questions about the interview while eating the delicious treat.

Other images of community involvement:

3. Mexican Candy Taste Test:

This video illustrates the effort I make to : build a collaborative and open classroom community, meet the diverse needs of students, and again reinforce language with content as seamlessly as possible. This video was edited by a student, the script was written by a group of students, and the vocabulary chosen by still other students.

4. Synthesis through Review Games

This video is a compilation of different review games we played in different units. The object of these games is not only synthesis, but collaboration, thinking about the content differently, the usage of various modalities (e.g. visual, aural, somatic, etc.), and making inter-disciplinary links to the content.