As a teacher, my role is to create a safe and supportive environment where young learners will have their talents and curiosities nurtured. Students need to leave school with the frameworks and global competencies necessary to take on real problems and become engaged, skeptical learners for life. More than just informed and critical learners, I want my students to become good people through character education. People that care for and respect themselves and those that are different than them. I want them to leave my class with a sincere understanding of the principle that everyone you meet knows something that you don’t. I will accomplish this through organic and ongoing collaboration on authentic problems and projects at all stages of learning. I want my students to have many opportunities to work with each other in meaningful ways.
I want to bring infectious energy of curiosity and enthusiasm for whatever subject I might be teaching. The world is full of endless incredible things. I want my students to become curious about all the amazing complexities of the world that they can discover around them through inquiry-based pedagogy. I want to build on their existing knowledge and interests and help them make connections between different subjects. I will create this kind of engagement and deep learning through embodied, sensory classroom experiences – building, moving, and doing. As much as possible I want students to be engaged in real discovery and creation.
I want my students to become aware of and understand how all our unique perspectives inform how we see the world. Through this, which includes critical literacy practices, they can begin to see the world through the endless number of lenses available to us when we listen to those around us, as well as those outside our personal bubbles. When we are able to see things from the perspective of others we are better equipped to show empathy and support. To this end, I want to present students with stories and voices from outside the mainstream, and help students to be thoughtful, compassionate listeners.
I bring to the classroom years of learning and teaching experiences in different cultures and contexts. I work to adjust my teaching to each classroom context, including the land and natural environment. I bring my creativity, energy, compassion, and a critical eye. But this is not enough. As an individual with finite experiences and knowledge, I believe the only way I can hope to give my students a complete foundation of knowledge and skills is to make real connections and to become part of local and global communities of educators and learners on whose experiences I can build my practice. If I want my students to be able to work together, learn from others, listen to criticism and ask for help, then I need to continuously work to do this for myself.