Everything You Wanted to Know About Mrs. Metz

Education:  I started my educational career by studying engineering physics and THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY.  Later I discovered my love of teaching and graduated from Eastern Michigan University.  As I continued teaching in middle school, I returned to school to get a Master's in Middle School Mathematics.



Teaching Experience:  After student teaching in Ann Arbor, I took long-term substituting positions before I took a permanent position at a private school teaching fifth grade.  As I moved to teaching seventh and eight grade math, I was promoted to department head.  In 2008 I began working at Forsythe.  Since beginning at Forsythe I have taught all three grades and 6th grade support class.  



Roommates:  Our house is a busy one with my two sons, Ryan and Joshua.  My boys keep my husband, Dave, and I busy running them to baseball, swim, piano, and...  We have Mr. Lloyd, our loyal watch dog, to greet us at the end of each busy day!



 

Philosophy of Teaching:  I believe children are puzzles waiting to be solved.  As each school year approaches, I anticipate the different needs my students will have.  Even though the subject matter is the same, the audience is ever changing, which makes each day and each lesson different.  With that being said, I believe children all learn differently and a teacher needs to create an environment where they can not only learn the course content, but also learn how to be an active participant to the learning community. 
My philosophy of teaching is very bare and blunt.  I believe all students will learn in my classroom.  Differentiation has driven this philosophy and helped create strategies and habits to generate a classroom that offers an opportunity for each student to learn the instruction.  Because my objective is to reach every student, no matter what their ability, it is my “goal to figure out where a student is in relation to key learning goals and then provide learning experiences that will push the learner a little further and faster than is comfortable” (Tomlinson, 2001, p. 22). 
As an educator, there are many ways I create a safe and engaging environment where students can take risks and push themselves. A priority for me is creating a “classroom where there is mutual trust, teacher and student, student and student, [because students will] feel better about taking risks and stretching themselves where they wouldn’t normally” (Video: Meet Jennifer Almer).  By making the students aware I have a vested interested in not only their learning, but also their lives, students are able to build trust in me.  All the relationship pieces help me solve the thirty puzzles I am approached with each hour.