# Foundations and Assessment of Education/Edition 1/How to Use This Book/Creating your About the Author Page (aka your User Page)
## About the Author/Educational Philosophy

You will create your user home page in our course Wikibook and link it to our "About the Authors" table of contents discussion page.
Assignment Value: 50 points
1-2 paragraph description of yourself (About the Author): 20 points
2 or more paragraphs describing your philosophy of education: 20 points
Posting a link to your user page on our "About the Authors" Page: 10 points

## Technical Instructions

You will need to have a Wikibooks username to complete this assignment. Please see the directions for creating a Wikibooks username if you do not already have one.
* Log in to Wikibooks and navigate to our course text
* Go to the "About the Authors" section (there is a link on the title page)
* Find the letter that your Wikibooks username begins with
* Click "edit" on the right hand side of the screen that is directly across from your letter
* When the editing page appears, type four tildes underneath your letter. Four tildes is wikicode for your user name.
* Click "Save page"
* Your username should now appear on our "About the Authors" page.
* On the "About the Authors" page, click on your username. This will open up a new page.
* When the page opens you may begin adding content to your page. Remember to hit "Save Page" any time you make a change you want to keep.

## Assignment Directions

About the Author description--
On your user home page you should write a paragraph or two (or you can use bullets) introducing yourself. You can use only your Wikibooks user name or you can include your first and last name. You may want to write what city you are in and what you plan to study/teach. You can tell us why you want to be a teacher and/or what inspired you to be a teacher. You may include other information about yourself e.g. family members, hobbies, pets etc. if you like.
Your Educational Philosophy--
On this page you will also include your initial philosophy of education statement. We expect this will change over the course of the semester and over the course of your entire pre-service education. We don't expect you to have cemented all your ideas about education this early in your academic career. Instead, we are looking for you to start thinking about what you believe and why.
You do NOT need to do any research for this assignment. Instead, write from the heart. What are some of your thoughts and ideas on what makes a good teacher? What kind of educator do you want to be?
Your philosophy of education should be at least two paragraphs long and address two or more of the topics listed below:
* Diversity (e.g. How should students with special needs be handled? Should boys and girls be taught differently? Should students be grouped by ability? Should there be Bilingual education or English only? What about Ebonics? Will you treat “at-risk” students differently?)
* Instructional strategies (e.g. Will you use mostly lecture or group assignments? Will all students have the exact same requirements?)
* Classroom environment (e.g. How do you picture your future classroom? Consider, for example: student interactions, student-teacher interactions, parental involvement, collaboration with other teachers, the students’ level of engagement, motivation, and the classroom management techniques you plan to use)
* Technology (What kinds of technology will your students use?)
* Assessment (How will you find out what your students know and can do? Will you ask students to be involved in the assessment process by doing self-reviews, peer-reviews?)
* Curriculum (What's the purpose of schools? To teach strict academic content or to pass on values and culture? Should we focus on the basics, critical thinking, creativity, reading? Should secondary schools emphasize college prep or vocational programs? How should we deal with art, PE, sex ed, creationism? Should we have a national curriculum or should schools reflect their communities?
* Other issues that are important to you.