Martha Baumgarten's
Master of Education: Urban Teaching Program
Final Portfolio
 Ms. Baumgarten, Gen. McClellan, Gen. Grant, and Dodge students at the Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum in Springfield, IL. | Welcome!I am an Academy for Urban School Leadership Chicago Teaching Resident spending the year teaching and learning about 7th and 8th grade Language Arts and Social Studies at Dodge Renaissance Academy in East Garfield Park. |
Philosophy of Teaching
A quality education has the potential to positively impact both the life of the individual and society as a greater whole. All students not only can but want to learn and it is our duty to create opportunities for lifelong learning. Therefore, it is imperative that teachers come into the classroom with the teaching skills, emotional and mental capacities, and content knowledge to create the best possible school experience for their students.
Students learn best when they feel safe, emotionally and physically, appreciated, and challenged. To create a safe space for students, teachers must have the tools to manage students so that every person in the classroom feels confident in their ability to explore and develop. In order to make students feel appreciated a teacher must get to know each student in many capacities including, but not limited to, their personal stories, their cultural background, and their learning styles. In order to properly challenge students, educators must carefully scaffold students on appropriately leveled challenges to avoid both frustration (from too great a challenge) and complacency or boredom (from too little challenge).
In our democratic society, educators have the added responsibility of helping students to develop into the most responsible and forward thinking adult citizens possible. When students develop a broad array of information processing, critical thinking, and problem solving skills on top of a solid base of content knowledge they are best prepared to participate in our democratic society. It is the teacher’s duty to help these skills develop through a student-centered approach that allows students to experience multiple perspectives, modes of thought, and ways of learning.
When each student is provided a safe, appropriately challenging curriculum that includes not only a wide rang of content but also material that encourages critical thinking and problem solving they all have the potential to be successful, happy adults who will have the potential to continue to learn and thrive for the rest of their lives.
Resume
If you'd like, you can view my most recent resume here. Thanks for visiting!
