Welcome to my webpage! My name is Michael Hartman, and I am currently a 4th year student at the University of Florida. For the past two years I have been navigating the courses involved in the UFTeach-Science minor, which prepares students with science majors for a career as a professional educator in middle and high school. The progression of my work through these courses is represented here in the tabs.
The first course that I took was Explorations in Teaching Secondary Mathematics and Science, which laid the groundwork for my learning.
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The next class that I took was Classroom Interactions (CI), where I created lesson plans with a partner, taught them, and then revised them where reflection and observation deemed necessary.
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Now in my final semester, I am engaged in two courses which I am actively updating here; those are Project Based Instruction (PBI) and Apprentice Teaching (AT).
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My Teaching Philosophy
I have two passions that, when combined, are a perfect mix for an effective science teacher. They are: children, and science! I have been an avid reader for as long as I can remember, and much of what I read was science fiction. When I began learning more about science in middle school, I always went beyond what was expected for us to know because there were always further answers to my questions of why or how things worked, and how we know. This continued through my middle and high school careers and into my college career at the University of Florida. There, I began as a Pre-Pharmacy major, accomplishing my desires to work in science and to interact with people and positively affect their lives.
However, the summers before and after that first year of college I spent working with children in different jobs (summer camp, youth director at local church). Those experiences showed me that, not only do I want to spend my life affecting people, I want to spend it as a positive influence on children! As a result, I decided to pursue the UFTeach – Science minor, and I switched my major to Biology with a specialty in Secondary Education.
In my biology major courses, there were usually two components: a lecture-based class in which 50-250 students slogged in, mindlessly wrote notes, and absorbed little, and a hands-on learning based lab. It was incredible how lost or distracted I could often feel during the lecture. Luckily, the labs were structured such that what we “learned” in the lecture was applied in real life situations. This application was fun, engaging, and very helpful in understanding and remembering the content and concepts taught in the class. It is these kinds of hands-on discoveries and inquiries that I want to bring into my secondary education classroom. My philosophy is that science is, in its most basic form, curiosity. To quote the great Albert Einstein, “I have no special talent, I am only passionately curious.” While that may not be entirely true, the tenant remains the same: that if any student wishes to “be good at science”, they need only be curious about the world around them, how it works, and why it works that way. My goal is to inspire each student to inquire about the world around them and give them the tools and time in order to accomplish those learning and skill goals, and then incorporate those goals into those that the state has set for them in their standards.
My experiences in the UFTeach program has prepared me to be an effective teacher, implementing this teaching philosophy, from day one as a teacher. It has allowed me to make mistakes, fix them, and recognize them better in the future. It has helped show me what I need to do on a daily basis to bring a positive and excited atmosphere into my classroom, so that students are engaged and eager to learn. I have also been equipped with the management skills required to handle and run a smooth classroom where labs, dissections, and other hands-on learning activities are done frequently and safely and well-scaffolded with necessary background or explanatory information.
I also believe that the teacher’s relationship with a student’s parent or legal guardian is extremely important. Open communication and dialogue about student performance is key to making sure that, at home and in the classroom, each student is receiving the attention, information, and feedback that they need to succeed.
However, the summers before and after that first year of college I spent working with children in different jobs (summer camp, youth director at local church). Those experiences showed me that, not only do I want to spend my life affecting people, I want to spend it as a positive influence on children! As a result, I decided to pursue the UFTeach – Science minor, and I switched my major to Biology with a specialty in Secondary Education.
In my biology major courses, there were usually two components: a lecture-based class in which 50-250 students slogged in, mindlessly wrote notes, and absorbed little, and a hands-on learning based lab. It was incredible how lost or distracted I could often feel during the lecture. Luckily, the labs were structured such that what we “learned” in the lecture was applied in real life situations. This application was fun, engaging, and very helpful in understanding and remembering the content and concepts taught in the class. It is these kinds of hands-on discoveries and inquiries that I want to bring into my secondary education classroom. My philosophy is that science is, in its most basic form, curiosity. To quote the great Albert Einstein, “I have no special talent, I am only passionately curious.” While that may not be entirely true, the tenant remains the same: that if any student wishes to “be good at science”, they need only be curious about the world around them, how it works, and why it works that way. My goal is to inspire each student to inquire about the world around them and give them the tools and time in order to accomplish those learning and skill goals, and then incorporate those goals into those that the state has set for them in their standards.
My experiences in the UFTeach program has prepared me to be an effective teacher, implementing this teaching philosophy, from day one as a teacher. It has allowed me to make mistakes, fix them, and recognize them better in the future. It has helped show me what I need to do on a daily basis to bring a positive and excited atmosphere into my classroom, so that students are engaged and eager to learn. I have also been equipped with the management skills required to handle and run a smooth classroom where labs, dissections, and other hands-on learning activities are done frequently and safely and well-scaffolded with necessary background or explanatory information.
I also believe that the teacher’s relationship with a student’s parent or legal guardian is extremely important. Open communication and dialogue about student performance is key to making sure that, at home and in the classroom, each student is receiving the attention, information, and feedback that they need to succeed.