My Philosophy of Teaching and Learning
My goals for student learning transcend the content of the courses I will teach. Although there is much value in learning a second language (Latin) and gaining an understanding of past cultures, events, and peoples (history) in their own right, the knowledge, skills, and tools I will help my students develop serve far broader and more important goals than the acquisition of specific content knowledge. While I am very much aware that not every student who passes through my classrooms (or perhaps even any of them) will become an historian or Latinist or a history/Latin teacher or even a lifelong lover of the ancient world, my vision for teaching emphasizes how history and language development can help students to learn and practice important tools for critical and independent thinking, to challenge preconceptions about the past and the present world around them, to better understand and develop their own individuality and identity while respecting the individualities and identities of others, and to become powerful leaders for change once they complete their educations. In other words, I agree wholeheartedly with John Dewey that the ultimate goal of education is to prepare students for life.
I plan to achieve these goals for student learning by facilitating a culture of learning and risk-taking in an environment that is safe and welcoming, by setting high expectations for all of my students to be engaged and excited learning, by creating a classroom where collaborative learning is encouraged so that students can both learn from one another and inspire one another, by developing and teaching a diverse curriculum that exposes students to a variety of stories told from many different perspectives of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and socio-economic background, rather than focusing on the so-called “great” (and most often white) individuals as the best representatives of the past, by avoiding the trap of deficit thinking, deficit language, and deficit teaching in education, and by fostering a sense of the importance of social justice advocacy through abolitionist teaching.
The teaching style and methods I will adopt to ensure that these traits are engaged on a daily basis in my classes focus first on approaching education as a “warm demander” – a caring teacher who seeks to create a relationship with each and every student in my classes by learning about and encouraging the development of their own identities before any subject content is first introduced and to continue to grow those relationships throughout the school year, while at the same time setting high expectations of my students, “demanding” from them a commitment to be engaged, to give their full attention to the material, and to work hard at whatever activities they experience, with an emphasis on classroom effort coupled with a demonstration of the ability to think independently and critically.
I will introduce and reinforce subject area content through a variety of approaches that make students comfortable with speaking their minds and becoming self-reflective and with a critical eye not only to the topics, themes, and texts we encounter together, but also to become aware of and think critically about their own thinking. I will engage students in group activities such as turn and share, small group discussions, group projects, and group presentations to allow students to become risk-takers in the classroom on their own terms in smaller learning environments. I will teach content by creating activities that help students to learn about and develop their own identities and to find and reflect on the connections between subject content and those identities. The balance of assessments will tip decidedly toward formative over summative, with regular in-class activities around writing with “low-stakes” (full credit for the ”doing” of writing) to hone the skills of critical thinking and self-reflection, and by stressing a growth mindset, I will construct even summative assessments in such a way that students will have opportunities to reflect, revise, and resubmit for higher credit.
As students reach the end of the year in my classes, my plan for them is that they will be further along the path from where we started our journeys together in becoming inquisitive, critical thinkers, strong and confident in their own identities, and prepared to confront the world around them as advocates for change in order to make that world they are inheriting a better, more equitable place for themselves and ultimately for their own children.
I plan to achieve these goals for student learning by facilitating a culture of learning and risk-taking in an environment that is safe and welcoming, by setting high expectations for all of my students to be engaged and excited learning, by creating a classroom where collaborative learning is encouraged so that students can both learn from one another and inspire one another, by developing and teaching a diverse curriculum that exposes students to a variety of stories told from many different perspectives of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and socio-economic background, rather than focusing on the so-called “great” (and most often white) individuals as the best representatives of the past, by avoiding the trap of deficit thinking, deficit language, and deficit teaching in education, and by fostering a sense of the importance of social justice advocacy through abolitionist teaching.
The teaching style and methods I will adopt to ensure that these traits are engaged on a daily basis in my classes focus first on approaching education as a “warm demander” – a caring teacher who seeks to create a relationship with each and every student in my classes by learning about and encouraging the development of their own identities before any subject content is first introduced and to continue to grow those relationships throughout the school year, while at the same time setting high expectations of my students, “demanding” from them a commitment to be engaged, to give their full attention to the material, and to work hard at whatever activities they experience, with an emphasis on classroom effort coupled with a demonstration of the ability to think independently and critically.
I will introduce and reinforce subject area content through a variety of approaches that make students comfortable with speaking their minds and becoming self-reflective and with a critical eye not only to the topics, themes, and texts we encounter together, but also to become aware of and think critically about their own thinking. I will engage students in group activities such as turn and share, small group discussions, group projects, and group presentations to allow students to become risk-takers in the classroom on their own terms in smaller learning environments. I will teach content by creating activities that help students to learn about and develop their own identities and to find and reflect on the connections between subject content and those identities. The balance of assessments will tip decidedly toward formative over summative, with regular in-class activities around writing with “low-stakes” (full credit for the ”doing” of writing) to hone the skills of critical thinking and self-reflection, and by stressing a growth mindset, I will construct even summative assessments in such a way that students will have opportunities to reflect, revise, and resubmit for higher credit.
As students reach the end of the year in my classes, my plan for them is that they will be further along the path from where we started our journeys together in becoming inquisitive, critical thinkers, strong and confident in their own identities, and prepared to confront the world around them as advocates for change in order to make that world they are inheriting a better, more equitable place for themselves and ultimately for their own children.