TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
My work recognizes and honors the intricacies, essence, and value of life throughout the entire lifespan and emphasizes the significance of the primal period, as well as our earliest formative relationships, which in turn create the foundation for our individual and collective emotional and physical health and well-being and both directly and indirectly impact our interactions and relationships with others.
One of my favorite quotes from Dwight D. Eisenhower states "We succeed only as we identify in life, or in anything else, a single overriding objective, and make all other considerations bend to that one objective." My primary objective as a teacher is to encourage and challenge students to discover and develop their own critical thinking and anaylitical skills, as well as hone their research, writing, and communication abilities, as they create an intellectual position.
As a facilitator of learning I emphasize a learning - as well as student-centered -approach to teaching, I actively seek out and utilize a variety of instructional techniques, materials, and evaluation methods so as to spike and maintain student interest and engagement; explain, connect, and solidify important concepts and theories; enhance intellectual awareness and retention; and promote self-awareness and improvement.
Although close reading and textual analysis are important, I encourage class discussions and individual, group, and community work as the means by which the readings can be moved from page to precept. Student work is assessed in a manner which emphasizes the student's overall performance and takes into consideration increasing levels of competence and effort. I hold my students to high standards because I believe they can and will succeed in a manner which benefits them, their family, and the wider community. In short I ask nothing less of them than I ask of myself.
I also openly and enthusiatically acknowledge the interconnected nature of individual and collective histories, structure, agency, and environment. In turn I strive to create a safe environment where my students are able to acknowledge, challenge, re-frame, and effectually decide the value and fate of previously held beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. In turn, they are both encouraged and expected to engage in critical and honest reflection on their individual and collective past, present, and future roles; effectively evaluate sources of information; seek and examine evidence; and re-assess logic and validity in light of their new found knowledge and experiences.
I learned early on and from first-hand experience how influential a teacher can be in making or breaking a student's educational experience, both in the classroom and beyond. Like Parker J. Palmer, I believe the more you bring yourself to your teaching, the better teacher you will be, and so I bring all that I am. In closing I’d like to share one of his quotes which guides my teaching philosophy. Parker states “The imprint of good teachers remains long after the facts they gave us have faded.” I can only hope that I make as much of an imprint on my student’s lives as they have made on my mine.
"You must surround your students with models of straight forward conduct, clarified character, and open reasonablableness, for I believe it is in the hope of seeing such models that many serious people go to lectures rather than more conveniently reading books"
~ C. Wright Mills (1954)
My work recognizes and honors the intricacies, essence, and value of life throughout the entire lifespan and emphasizes the significance of the primal period, as well as our earliest formative relationships, which in turn create the foundation for our individual and collective emotional and physical health and well-being and both directly and indirectly impact our interactions and relationships with others.
One of my favorite quotes from Dwight D. Eisenhower states "We succeed only as we identify in life, or in anything else, a single overriding objective, and make all other considerations bend to that one objective." My primary objective as a teacher is to encourage and challenge students to discover and develop their own critical thinking and anaylitical skills, as well as hone their research, writing, and communication abilities, as they create an intellectual position.
As a facilitator of learning I emphasize a learning - as well as student-centered -approach to teaching, I actively seek out and utilize a variety of instructional techniques, materials, and evaluation methods so as to spike and maintain student interest and engagement; explain, connect, and solidify important concepts and theories; enhance intellectual awareness and retention; and promote self-awareness and improvement.
Although close reading and textual analysis are important, I encourage class discussions and individual, group, and community work as the means by which the readings can be moved from page to precept. Student work is assessed in a manner which emphasizes the student's overall performance and takes into consideration increasing levels of competence and effort. I hold my students to high standards because I believe they can and will succeed in a manner which benefits them, their family, and the wider community. In short I ask nothing less of them than I ask of myself.
I also openly and enthusiatically acknowledge the interconnected nature of individual and collective histories, structure, agency, and environment. In turn I strive to create a safe environment where my students are able to acknowledge, challenge, re-frame, and effectually decide the value and fate of previously held beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. In turn, they are both encouraged and expected to engage in critical and honest reflection on their individual and collective past, present, and future roles; effectively evaluate sources of information; seek and examine evidence; and re-assess logic and validity in light of their new found knowledge and experiences.
I learned early on and from first-hand experience how influential a teacher can be in making or breaking a student's educational experience, both in the classroom and beyond. Like Parker J. Palmer, I believe the more you bring yourself to your teaching, the better teacher you will be, and so I bring all that I am. In closing I’d like to share one of his quotes which guides my teaching philosophy. Parker states “The imprint of good teachers remains long after the facts they gave us have faded.” I can only hope that I make as much of an imprint on my student’s lives as they have made on my mine.
"You must surround your students with models of straight forward conduct, clarified character, and open reasonablableness, for I believe it is in the hope of seeing such models that many serious people go to lectures rather than more conveniently reading books"
~ C. Wright Mills (1954)