A little about myself

Wrapping up my 4th year of teaching has presented quite a few difficult and unique challenges to deal with, and I foresee many more in the near future.  Learning new techniques and approaches can never hurt when trying to deal with current and future challenges.  Teaching 8th grade science can be quite challenging at times, which makes me want to figure out how to become a better teacher and learner.  Ive come to realize two things that I didnt see coming within the past few years.  Number one: If you are careful and pay attention, the students will teach you how to teach them.  And number two:  high stakes testing arent much to worry about (at least with the current processes).  My philosophy is, learn how to use methods, techniques, and mindsets that are successful, and the scores will follow.  I dont see a need to spend weeks or even months preparing for these tests as I have seen some colleagues do.  I'm generally good at convincing the students to learn or at least try to learn the "stuff" we do in class, and when the students trust that I will show them something interesting, unique, weird, or cool, they will often want to be asked for more responsibilities (gasp!, you mean even on high stakes tests?).