TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

A key concept in effective teaching is diversity. As a teacher, I consciously choose diverse topics, authors, methods and modes of teaching, and assignments. Such diversity in teaching is necessary because my students are diverse. They have diverse identities, cultures, backgrounds, interests, knowledge, skills, needs, and goals. Though there is no way I can tailor all of the lessons and assignments to every student, by providing a variety of lessons and assignments that are taught and workshopped in a safe environment, students are able to flourish. My philosophy aligns with John C. Bean’s findings on designing assignments in a variety of genres, “Different genres tap different kinds of strengths, allowing more students to succeed” (61). A testament to this comes from my own experience. Recently, I had a student who struggled with her written assignments and even her oral presentation. However, the final project was a multi-modal trailer for a movie. The student, who I thought might be having difficulties analyzing the material in class, produced a brilliant and moving trailer. Her use of images and music gave me chills, and her project set the bar for the rest of the class. After class, I asked her if I could use her project as an exemplar for future classes. The student who had practically hid in the back of the room now beamed, and she said, “Of course!” and then told me, “The best part was watching your reaction to it in class.” The experience reinforced my belief in the need for a variety of assignments produced in a variety of modes and media to help more students be successful.

Learning is not a test, it is a journey. I remember agonizing over teachers who seemed to pride themselves in catching students’ errors. I envisioned them wringing their hands while uttering a sinister “mwahahaha” right before brandishing their sharp red pen to circle my failure and deduct points from my assignment. I never want my students to feel that way in my courses—fearing to submit an assignment. My job, as a teacher, is to help students develop ideas, apply knowledge, and hone skills. The assignments I create are not punitive tests but opportunities to develop and learn. One way my assignments encourage development and growth is through drafts. Any larger assignment, paper, or project is done in multiple phases. Drafting along with individual feedback in the form of conferencing allows me the opportunity to tailor my feedback and assistance to each individual student. This individualized feedback and guidance helps the students develop their understanding and their skills.

Though I love to learn for the sake of learning, I am aware that most of my students are in my classes to either fulfill a requirement or learn something to help them succeed in one or more endeavors. Therefore, I believe it is important to communicate and even demonstrate the relevance and transferability of the material in my courses. Students will not only have more “buy in” if they feel the class will be useful, but they will more likely retain the knowledge and skills. Moreover, students need to understand that a class is not a vacuum isolated from the rest of the world. Helping students connect the dots between the lessons in my courses and both other disciplines and real word applications promotes integrative and life-long learning. For example, in one of my literature courses, populated completely by nursing students, after having read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the assignment was to describe a time when they were like Alice, trying to navigate through a new and confusing place. Then they wrote about how their patients are like Alice, disoriented and even afraid in the confusing world of the hospital. Finally, remembering how they felt when they were like Alice, they discussed how they could help their patients navigate their experiences in the hospital. The vulnerability of Alice, for them, was translated into their patients’ vulnerability, and, through their empathy for Alice, they developed a newfound empathy for their patients. Children’s literature helped make them better nurses.

My classroom is filled with individual human beings, not names on a roster. I try to remember that my students have entire, complex, and complicated lives outside my class that affect their performance in my class. A few years ago, I was reminded of how much I don’t know about my students. I was teaching a second semester composition course in which there was a student who struggled with her writing because she did not speak Standard American English. This same student often would disengage from class discussions and spend a great deal of time staring at her computer screen. When we had our first one on one conference for a paper in that class, I was trying to explain to her that she was going to need to put in extra effort with her writing conventions in order to be successful in the course and with her written assignments for her other courses. I told her that going to the tutoring center for additional assistance would be beneficial to her and that she could also make additional appointments with me. Then I began going through her paper and tried to discuss with her areas that needed clarification, elaboration, and support. About two paragraphs into the paper she began reading emails on her laptop. After the conference, I was sure that the student did not care about the course or about her writing skills. I also thought she had been disrespectful. A few days later, I stopped by the tutoring center to find out if she had made an appointment. The director of the center told me that she had been in three times already with her paper. I was in shock. The director also told me that the student gave her a list of things that I had told her she needed to focus on in her writing. Again, shocked. She was listening and obviously cared. The director also said that the student thought I was being extremely hard on her and even mean. "Me, mean? What? I was the one taking my time to help her when she was blowing me off reading her emails!" That was my initial response. Then I thought about her dedication to her work by going to the tutoring center and realized that we had both misread each other.

It was then I was reminded that what we see from our students in the short time they are in our class or an office visit is only a brief fragment of that student and the student’s life. I asked the student to meet with me, and we discussed our misconceptions of each other. I told her the reasons why I thought she was disengaged, and she explained that was her coping mechanism when she was stressed or felt inadequate. We learned a lot about each other, and I learned a lot about what it meant to be a teacher. We formed an alliance dedicated to helping her through the course and with her written communication skills. We worked through her papers page by page. We created an alternate schedule for her work to allow her to work closely and often with me and the tutoring center. Her work improved, her attitude in class improved, and our relationship improved. Moreover, my awareness, appreciation, and empathy for my students improved. Since that time, I have been more conscious of students who seem to be disengaged or struggling in class. My focus, when in front of the classroom, now goes beyond the lessons and assignments and looks toward my students’ learning obstacles. I have become more aware that I have students who are extremely introverted, have PTSD, are from a culture that looks at asking for help as a weakness, and the list goes on. I put in extra time and effort not just helping these students feel comfortable in my classes but to learn and perform at their highest possible level.

During my years of teaching, what I have learned is that I must always be learning. I need to learn about new developments in my field and in pedagogy. However, more importantly, I need to learn from and about my students. My teaching focuses on the needs of my students and how best to help them acquire the skills and knowledge to succeed in my classroom and beyond.

Bean, John C. Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrative Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. 2^nd ed., Jossey-Bass, 2011.