Welcome to DeLeary Classroom Connections

Personal Philosophy for Teaching Online

My philosophy for teaching middle school special education online or in person is rooted in four core beliefs. 1: Building relationships is the most important thing teachers can do to create a successful classroom. 2: Mental health needs to be addressed and considered daily with students in middle school especially. 3: Differentiation is a key element to ensuring every student has the tools to succeed; and lastly 4: Bringing real world experiences and examples into a classroom leaves lasting impressions and creates interest. 

Relationships

I believe that every student can be successful when they first have a relationship with adults involved in their education. It is the job of a teacher to meet their students where they are and learn how to support them academically, emotionally, professionally, and personally. Relationship building happens more naturally between students and between students and teachers in face-to-face classes. This however, does not mean that relationships are not possible online but teachers must be more purposeful. When designing and delivering online courses teachers must use different technology to empower students to engage, interact, and collaborate with each other and their teacher. One way, I encourage online collaboration is by using applications that allow students to explain their thinking and then having their classmates respond. Another way is to have students engaged during video lessons by incorporating games and increasing their online comfortability. Students in middle school care about what their peers think a lot so encouraging a welcoming community that it is ok to get things wrong is really important. One way I do that is by using a mixture of applications that students can give feedback anonymously to an unknown classmate and applications that students can give feedback to known peers. This gives balance between feeling awkward giving negative feedback and being comfortable knowing everyone makes errors and there is a way to give constructive feedback.

Mental Health

Students cannot learn when they are too distracted by their personal struggles. It is my job as a teacher to balance education and mental health. I have a mental health check-in that all students participate in through a google doc everyday before the lessons start. This helps me guage how my students are doing and adjust my expectations for the day. Having this on Google Docs also allows me to track trends with my students. Having them check-in is only one part of this task, the other part is the teacher responding to the struggles of students and being supportive and a listening ear. Letting students know that teachers and adults care and are there for them is even more important when education is online since students have less natural interactions with school staff. Middle school is an interesting age because they internalize so much and feel like adults do not understand them, especially students with disabilities. Having mental health at the forefront of teachers minds helps students open up and know their teacher is genuine.

Differentiation

As a teacher of students with different abilities differentiation is important to ensure access for all students. Online there are many tools I can use to help with differentiation that could not be done face-to-face. For my enrichment class that is focused on students’ IEP goals and supporting the general education classes, it was hard to balance time when every student has different goals in my classroom. With online courses it is easier for all students to access lessons at their level and on their goals. 

Real World

Bringing in real world examples to middle schoolers before they ask “When am I ever going to use this?” is important. If students find real world connections it adds value to the material and feels less like checked off boxes. When students are shown how content will apply to their lives as adults they are excited especially in middle school since they are trying to become more mature and like adults. This becomes easier when a course online since the formatting can make the assignment feel more real like a blog instead of an essay fake shopping on amazon to see the discounted prose if students had a coupon. These are things they see people out in the world doing not just for a grade.