MY STORY
I've been surrounded and inspired by teachers and educators my whole life, but I thought it was the last thing I wanted to do. My mother was a teacher - at my own middle and high school nonetheless - and though I had immense respect for what she did, I saw firsthand the truly rigorous side of the profession. Thus, I rebelled against and scoffed at the notion of ever doing it myself.
Nevertheless, I made the decision to take the first step class in the UTeach Natural Sciences pathway, feeling a beckoning of so to do so, and since then I've been on the most rewarding journey of my life. Never have I been more sure that I'm doing what I'm meant to be, and what I once viewed as rigorous and tiresome has evolved into challenging in the best way. Every day I am pushed and called to do better as an educator, leader, and mentor and I answer to it because I am sure I have what it takes and the support I need to bring out the best in any and all students that enter my care.
Teaching Philosophy
My goal as an instructor is to produce students that are independent and adaptable thinkers with an internalized motivation to learn and further themselves. Far too often are children’s minds thought of as one-dimensional confined pools to be filled with whatever information can be crammed into their heads in the years they are in school. However, as I’ve seen firsthand in the field, the reality is that students’ learning abilities are incredibly diverse, and they can gain and build upon knowledge in magnificent ways. Their learning and knowledge are subject to change and growth depending on their own experiences and abilities. I believe the students’ instructor should take this dynamic nature into account when giving instruction, and it’s something I will give more consideration to in the future.
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With that being said, though I am the teacher, I feel that it would be in the best interest of the students if I did less of the talking relatively. Something I’ve noticed in the field is that the students seem to learn better from their peers than myself, and I feel that allowing for discourse amongst themselves will yield much better results in terms of their education as time goes on. After all, the real world is most often not going to have students in a situation where they are idly being fed information to regurgitate later. In other words, I want the students to be in charge of their learning and consciously build their own knowledge whilst I facilitate and create a safe space in which they can do this effectively. In my classroom, I would want the students to be very competent in self-assessment because nobody, including myself, can identify their strengths and weaknesses better than themselves.
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Lastly - and most importantly - I do not want my students to believe that they must be perfect or even adequate at everything the first time. I don’t want them to have the idea that there are people who are “just good at some things and bad at others”. Thankfully, the students didn’t seem to get frustrated with concepts they didn’t quite understand and were very quick to ask questions. I’m glad the students had that inherent desire to better themselves and be willing to learn new and challenging concepts. Although, I also feel that leaving students to their own devices for a time and allowing their failures to drive their learning exposes students to struggle and forces them to learn how they learn both as an individual and within a group.