My personal philosophy in teaching,
As I am focused on history I have a belief that it is important when studying history to not only know about events but to be able to analyze them and be able to understand and explain how things are related. My views on teaching is that I have a responsibility is to keep my classroom a learning environment and one that is both interesting and yet at the same time a challenge. Classroom management is essential as it keeps my class focused and keeps my class organized so that students spend most of their time learning. From what I have seen the most effective teachers have to be flexible and be knowledgeable about their field so that not only they have the information that they are teaching to their students but they can be adaptable with what they know so that they can meet what their individual students want to learn. Also I think a teacher needs to be able keep a cool head and to be able to be an example on how to act. What I have also seen is that teachers not teach academic skills but they also teach life skills.
Author: nwwoods
Blog 5 Observation
Blog 5
- Observed
- Opening…
- One of the most effective opening strategies I saw was when my mentor had the students write flash cards about the material we had been going over the day before.
- During…
- My mentor teacher places procedure sheets on each table that gives specific instructions on what she wants to the students to follow when they are reading the book.
- Closure…
- The most effective closure I have seen has been the use of exit tickets, which is an effective assessment tool.
- Opening…
- Transitions
- Announcements…
- She quickly quieted the students down and held up the class until the announcements were over.
- Getting up to use the restroom…
- She has given specific instructions on when students can go to the bathroom. She only allows only one student at a time and she does not allow students to go to bathroom ten minutes after class has started and before class has ended.
- Alarms…
- The students panicked but she was quickly able to get them to calm down by raising her voice and giving clear instruction.
- Announcements…
- Strategy
- The strategy that I liked was a worksheet that clear procedures for note taking that was at every table for the students to follow, I liked it because it gave the students clear instructions on how they should do their note taking and gave students different roles to help them gather the information that they needed.
Blog 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RffD7QN1XW8
I like this video because I think an important part of being an effective teacher is being a professional teacher. Being professional means that you keep a respectful attitude and you can not do that if you belittle or insult your students. If a student is wrong it’s your duty to correct them but it’s easier if you can redirect their answer so they understand why they were wrong and show them how to do it correctly.
https://www.csun.edu/~acc50786/Education.html
I like some parts of this article but I disagree about wanting to be a student’s favorite teacher. I want to be a good teacher and sometimes being a favorite teacher and being a good teacher is not the same thing. I want students to learn and understand the material and it’s more important to me if they understand the information I am providing not if they like me or not. At the same time I do not want to be remembered as a teacher who was mean and cruel just for the sake of being mean and cruel, if anything I want my class to be remembered as a challenge.
https://www.nea.org/tools/51057.html
Like the other article I am not comfortable about being the most popular teacher at the school, but it’s a nice side effect. At the same I don’t think the teacher’s job is to be rude or cruel to their students as that’s counter productive. I do agree that being able to listen to your students is a good quality.
The future of Alaska Native education/Blog 3
I like this article because I have seen what has happened to other indigenous cultures that had been forced to adapt to a culture that had some heightened sense of superiority and they have had incredibly damaging results. I think that like in the article that it is essential that Native Alaskan students keep their culture and that their communities have to have a significant say on what their children should be taught in order to preserve their culture. I also understand that there are going to be incredible amounts of difficulties in implementation of any source of education that comes from outside of their communities.
An example that I can think of that is similar to what happening to Native Alaskan communities is the indigenous people of Greenland who had been controlled by the Danish/Norwegians since the 1280s and have suffered through a lot of forced cultural adaptation. However we can use Greenland as an example of what we could do as Greenland has been starting to make great strides in preserving their indigenous culture and for example has even reverted back to using the original native language of Greenlandic/Kalaallisut as the official language of the country instead of forcing Danish which they had been doing for centuries and I think that is something that we can learn from.
Blog 2

Rules
I believe that two of the main keys to having a successful classroom is a well organized and well focused classroom. In my belief rules should help focus the class and keep the flow of the lesson of going. My rules would include 1) Respect; Respect me and respect each other. 2) Be prepared. 3) Give me 100%. As I am a Social Studies teacher there will be a lot of discussion and lecture so the first rule has to be respect as I want students to listen and not interrupt anyone who has the floor, thus I would hope this would keep the class focused on the lesson and to keep the flow of class going with as few interruptions as possible. Students have to be prepared as they need to be able to keep up with the rest of the class, if they need help they can come see me or ask their fellow students being prepared keeps the flow of class going. Lastly I want my students to give me their all in my classroom as they have all the materials to succeed in my classroom but only if they participate and do the work that I assign them.
The three rules I presented are the rules I want to introduce to my students.. I would provide my three rules to my classroom on the first day of the class but I would also have my students provide more details on the rules so they can become familiar with the procedures that I would use in my class; so during exams or when students can get up to sharpen their pencils or use the restroom they follow the procedures. The reason why I would let them have a voice on the rules is because I believe it gives them more of a connection to the rules and they would have to agree to the rules for the hope that if they help make the rules they would know and have a better understanding.
If you want to make your own Keep Calm poster go to https://www.keepcalmandposters.com/
Hello
Hello
My name is Nathaniel Woods but you can call me Nate. I am originally from Omaha Nebraska and this will be my fifth year at UAF. Last May I graduated from UAF with a BA in History and a minor in Russian Studies. I am currently working on my masters in Secondary Education. I was president of Phi Alpha Theta 2013/2014.
I am currently working for University at Transportation Services where I am either driving buses or working with the mechanics on whatever the Grounds department breaks. I enjoy hunting and reading.