Educational / Teaching Philosophy (What makes Mr. Mott tick?)

I look at education as an opportunity to learn about and operate in the world around us.  I like to ask questions and especially the question "Why?"  Somewhere along the line, we lost the 2-year old in us that is inquisitive and interested in our surrounding environments.  It's almost as if we're scared to appear to be too interested in the world around us.  There's a quote attributed to Confucius that says "The person who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the person who does not ask is a fool for life."  It may be just that little piece of needed information that makes the concept make sense.  Please ask questions!  I ask questions - you ask questions!

I'll do my best to make the class interesting and informative - you do your best to be a student of life and it's processes.  I'll do my best to provide feedback - you do your best to act on the feedback and improve your learning.  I will not grade everything.  I like the sports analogy.  The number of practices that you attend does not get entered into the win-loss column, just like a lot of what we do in class is practice and doesn't get entered into grades.  In practice, we try something new, succeed or fail, learn from our mistake, and improve upon it.  In sports, there are pre-season scrimmages that are game day practice, but again do not get entered into the team's win-loss column.  In class, we will take formative assessments often so that I know where we are in our learning process.  It doesn't get entered into grades, but it provides insight in my future teaching activities.  Then there is GAME DAY - the is entered into the team's win-loss column.  Somewhere, the team must demonstrate how good it is at what it does.  TEST DAY is game day!  This is where you must demonstrate how good you know the material.  This will get entered into the grade book. I will also enter perfected writing samples as grades along with some other activities that would demonstrate your learning!

You do your best and I'll help you achieve success.  If you try to short-circuit the learning process by presenting material that is not your work/thinking, being less than honest with me, or tuning out via phone/earbuds, we will have issues that need to be corrected before you enter the real world of the workplace.

So, for this year ...

Don't just "DO IT!" ... DO IT BETTER!!

Here's to a great year together!
Mr. Mott