Beth Porterfield Frattali

2441 S. Lincoln St. Arlington, VA 22206  (571) 213-5815

bethporterfield@yahoo.com

Educational Philosophy

My educational philosophy reflects the theories of progressive education

developed by John Dewey, the research on multiple intelligences explored by Harvard
psychologist Howard Gardner and the practical application of observation and task
analysis to meet every child where they are, as defined by learning differences
pioneer and founder of the Lab School of Washington, Sally L. Smith. My daily
classroom practices, designed to help students become empowered agents for positive
change by practicing critical thinking, bearing witness and taking right action, stem
from my own experiences as a student from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade at the
progressive Maret School in Washington DC and from my time working at
Greenpeace USA.

Why I Teach

After working in the fields of social services with homeless people and then
working as a professional activist with Greenpeace, I came to teaching in my thirties
because I was interested in replicating the experiences that I had in school that
inspired me to be an activist for social and environmental justice. I found my path as a
teacher through modeling Dewey’s belief in pragmatism, implementing experiential
learning with real world feed back in the first “Tide Turners” course I developed. This
course, a community service humanities elective, asked students to pick a problem
that they cared about, research the nonprofit, government and private sector responses
to the issue, then implement their own project-based solution. Serving as a “guide on
the side” I observed students participating in transformational experiences. For
example, a student from Sudan, wanting to take action on the humanitarian crisis in
her home country, organized a three-day student-teach in keynoted by Congressman
Jim Moran, featuring issue experts from nonprofits such as Amnesty International and
culminating with a lobbying day for Darfur refugees on Capitol Hill. This experience
truly helped shape my future teaching and instilled in me a commitment to create a
democratic classroom where the teacher and student learn together with authentic
assessment from real-world feedback in all curricula.

What I Teach

From my first early teaching experiences with experiential, project based

learning, I grew as a teacher to include a formalized, arts inclusive, multi-curricular,
multi-age approach to my classes informed by the “Club Method” of Sally Smith of
the Lab School of Washington. As Sally believed, “Every child can learn. It is up to
us, the adults, to seek out and discover the routes by which he learns.” (Smith, 1979)
Building on individual children’s strengths, the Lab School Club model uses arts and
experiential learning to help children act out and absorb topics. Therefore, a middle
school social studies class transforms into “Gods Club” where students create
characters and costumes of various Gods and Goddesses to learn Greek, Norse and
Egyptian mythologies or a middle grade science class designs, plants and harvests a
community garden as their vehicle for learning about plant biology and soil science.

In the upper grades, I implemented this methodology in the Tide Turners

environmental science class where students study an endangered species, then go to
volunteer with scientists and activists in the field working with that species, then
return to campus and make short films detailing their experience as their main
assessment. In this way, science is taught from both the heart center (caring about the
endangered animal and learning how to take action) and the head (learning the hard
science involved in issues that impact a species such as ocean acidification, climate
change and genetic population health declines due to habitat loss).

How I Teach

I describe my teaching methods as inquiry based, activism and empowerment

oriented, fostering of critical thinking, encouraging constructivism while creating
applied projects and teaching with the multiple intelligences in mind. Gardner’s
Theory of Multiple Intelligences has served as my primary definition of intelligence
and how to simultaneously encourage, accommodate and challenge students based on
their individual learning styles. At the end of the day, the greatest strength of my
teaching is the relationship I develop with my students, one of understanding and
respect for who they are as people and what matters to their hearts and minds.

How I measure My Effectiveness

Alumni feedback, project based exhibitions, building in written and verbal

opportunities for self reflection in the classroom, Socratic seminar and guided inquiry
exercises are all mechanisms I use to keep track of student progress and how effective
I am being as their teacher. If students feel and express love for what they are
learning and feel their strength growing as learners, then I am doing my job as their
teacher.