Teaching Philosophy
Caring about young people is the central reason I teach. The teachers who influenced me most (from Mrs. Hennel, who loved every one of her second graders, to Mrs. Ritter, who never missed a day of school no matter how bad she felt, to Mrs. Rauzi, who sparked my love of language as our high school literary magazine advisor, and who later asked me to take care of her classes while she underwent chemotherapy) put emotional energy into developing relationships with their students. My desire to help students grow and succeed flows from the connections I make with the young people I work with.
Because I care about them, I have high expectations of myself and my students. I push my students to revise repeatedly so they can produce the best work they can, just as I constantly evaluate and modify my own teaching. I strive to empower students with rigorous and in-depth content that is relevant to their present and future lives. While it is important for young people to be exposed to a wide variety of subjects so they have a well-rounded perspective on the world, students benefit more from delving into and becoming expert in a smaller number of subjects than from covering more topics superficially and forgetting what little they learned.
This focused exploration occurs in my classroom through product-focused, learning-based projects. People learn the most when they have a reason to learn. Students want to know when they need to know. Producing a meaningful product for a real audience is one particularly potent way to generate that need to learn. At the culmination of projects and studies, students need a chance to share what they've discovered to reinforce their learning, to reflect on the process, and to take pride in what they've accomplished.
Making student work public also makes sense because learning is, in large part, a social process. We take in and figure out, sort and share ideas through human interaction. My classroom is usually a lively place where groups of various sizes grapple with the material at hand. I also try to make learning take place out of the classroom. I take students out to gather information, to connect with adults out in the world, and to see how their learning applies.
I believe strongly in interdisciplinary study. I'm personally interested in so many fields of study--meeting college general education requirements by taking classes in social sciences, math, art, environmental science was a joy. Even though I've often been, officially, an English teacher, biology and sociology, astronomy, government, and statistics all make their way into my classes. Students may ask, "What's this got to do with English?" The most honest answer is that "English" doesn't exist. Segregating disciplines isn't helpful in solving the problems of the adult world, and it's artificial in school.
Still, to learn any subject we must communicate. Language connects every field of study. It is the most powerful tool we have for self-consciously processing information and creating knowledge, understanding, and ultimately wisdom. Even hands-on learning is language-based. So my field is English. Since I believe language skills are critical to young people's educations, because I care about their futures, I teach.