Teaching Philosophy
Attention
I believe the biggest gift we can offer each other is attention. Whether elementary school or university, students need to feel that their ideas matter and their presence is valued. Over my first decade of teaching, I have learned that the gift of attention is key to helping students develop a strong sense of themselves and a lifelong appreciation for learning. Theatre practitioner Anne Bogart writes that, as a director, “You cannot create results; you can only create the conditions in which something might happen" (Bogart 2001). Likewise, I believe that a teacher’s role is to shape the liberatory conditions in which students feel empowered to direct their own education. My teaching practice is one in which students learn to see themselves as agents of change to become more conscious and confident learners.
Excitement
My goal as a teacher is to create an environment where students feel encouraged and excited to grow. In order to learn, students need to feel capable of taking risks; in order to take risks, students need to believe in their own capacity to make choices. Offering multiple chances to demonstrate mastery is the best way to help learners develop confidence and appreciation for the knowledge gained through failure. When I teach, I look for opportunities to let learners lead, with differentiated instruction to encourage them to express their talents and lean into their growth areas. I believe that teachers who show excitement and curiosity about their subject area motivate their students to learn, and that students need multiple pathways to engage with material––both sincere and silly. Teaching with good humor and flexibility is how I lower the stakes of failure for my students, promote reflection and self-awareness, and foster critical literacy and conscientiousness about their actions.
Inclusion
Resilience and mental health are the foundation for effective learning and academic success, and I place student wellbeing at the center of any decision-making process. When students are struggling, I view this as an opportunity to identify lagging skills and unsolved problems (Greene 2018), and when conflicts arise, I use nonviolent communication and restorative justice practices to maintain an inclusive and compassionate classroom space. Through evidence-based, trauma-informed teaching practices, I aim to solve problems with compassion and collaboration, while reducing the punitive and exclusionary discipline practices that harm students and disproportionately affect students of color and students with disabilities. Teaching throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and a youth mental health crisis has shown me the importance of fostering an affirmative and supportive learning environment for all students. Many of the accommodations that I began providing during the pandemic have now become standard practice in my teaching, such as flexible deadlines, asynchronous learning, and movement breaks to reduce stress and promote mindfulness.
Meaning
I consider myself fundamentally a teacher of language. Learning to decode across disciplines––not only in the verbal language of poetry or prose, but the visual language of art and the symbolic language of mathematics––is how students take their first steps toward writing their own story. Through a social constructivist lens, I hope to inspire students to share their unique experiences and appreciate the perspectives that others bring to the table. As much as possible, I seek out teaching materials that expand my students’ worldviews and demonstrates that teaching and learning are enhanced by diversity and cooperation. I am passionate about fostering literacy skills through real-world examples and materials that provoke genuine excitement, inspire lasting curiosity, and require deep engagement with contemporary issues. By learning to situate their learning in cultural, historical, and rhetorical contexts, my students develop an appreciation of power of language and build their self-awareness as civically-engaged learners.
Choice
Some choices are harder to make than others, with consequences that affect our entire lives, while others determine only the next hour or minute. But all choices, regardless of triviality, require the courage to commit, the confidence to experiment, and the curiosity to explore multiple options. Having choices gives students the agency to transform the conditions of their learning and their lives. As a teacher, I strive to provide avenues through which learners discover their capacity to make choices, the space and support to fail, and the courage to try again.
February 2024
Works Cited
Bogart, A. (2001). A Director Prepares. Routledge.
Duckworth, E. (2001). “Tell me more”: Listening to learners explain. Teachers College Press.
Inoue, A. (2015). Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies: Teaching and Assessing Writing for a Socially Just Future. WAC Clearinghouse, Parlor Press.
Greene, R.W. (2018). “Transforming school discipline: Shifting from power and control to collaboration and problem solving,” Childhood Education, 94:4, 22-27.
Lerman, L. And Borstel, J. (2003). Liz Lerman's critical response process: A method for getting useful feedback on anything you make, from dance to dessert. Dance Exchange, Inc.