My teaching philosophy is built on my experiences teaching developmental education in urban and rural communities. From my first positions as a tutor and academic coach, I noticed the tendency of students to work best when they could connect their studies to heir own experiences. For example, when teaching courses on reading or writing composition, I found students worked better when the assignments were framed as texts that they could imagine encountering in their real life (ie: reading a lease or writing a petition). The value students put on the material, and the effort they gave to it,  was increased by framing the assignments in a way that allowed students to self-direct according to their interests and use that as interest as the mechanism to go deeper into the course material. 

 

My philosophy is built on the idea that the key to learning is built into every student. As a teacher, my goal is to help activate students natural curiosity, while honing the edge of their critical thinking through problem solving. My goal is for students leaving my class to be able to take away not just new information, but to feel equipped seek out new information of their own.

 

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