Education Portfolio
Randy Coplin

Home Resume Classroom Management Theory of Teaching Professional Standards Teaching Documents and Credentials Psychology Curricula Language Arts Curricula Professional Work   Click here to view my teaching video

Personal Summary    My life as a teacher is founded on the experience of being a father and now having raised my daughter for sixteen years, nurturing her intellectual and emotional development. I have also traveled widely, having lived in Europe and Asia, and experienced cultural displacement and assimilation. As a college professor and teaching assistant for 20 years, I have taught in a variety of settings from large lecture to one-on-one personal instruction. I have studied and taught varied disciplines from video production to public speaking to art history to transcendental meditation. I have applied techniques of classroom management in group settings ranging from boys junior high basketball to university lecture hall. Through these situations I have developed my own unique perspective on the educational process.     In this professional portfolio I have displayed my teaching philosophy - the basis of my continuing interest in education. I look forward to applying all that I have learned in earning a teacher’s license and Masters degree to either college or high school teaching. An examination of my resume and the coursework grades earned at Northwestern, San Francisco State, UCSD, and MUM should indicate my preparedness to teach Language Arts, Psychology, Art, or Sociology. My classroom management plan demonstrates my belief that order has to precede learning. However, I prefer cooperative learning whenever possible because students learn so much from one another. My experiences in coaching have taught me that individual achievements are multiplied by concerted endeavors. In the classroom I prefer discussion format over direct instruction, but I have learned that leadership and teaching by modeling (demonstration) is equally important. My background as videographer and television producer enables me to use visual materials that illustrate concepts, make social life more vivid, and offer opportunities for student cooperative projects.    The best demonstration of my abilities as a teacher can be found in the evaluations pages in which I have presented student evaluations and references from teachers and peers. Pre and post-test surveys of student attitudes demonstrates the effectiveness my teaching Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome on moral development. Numerous and varied assessments are also available for review. A snapshot of my interaction with students is the video of my teaching Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea.     Finally this website offers a portfolio not only of my work but of my development as a teacher, confirming my adherence to the Iowa Standards of Professional Development. Though I now have the license to teach and coach high school students, I will apply the teaching skills I developed in working with college students and people of all ages in the communities in which I have lived. Receptivity and patience are assets in leaders and communicators regardless of context.