Teaching Philosophy

Teaching is not only an academic curriculum. It is behavior and expectations, respect of self and others, modeling empathy and critical evaluation, and demonstrating an insatiable curiosity for the world around us. It is perhaps above all a blueprint for students for the moral actions one takes in the world. I believe education, both teaching and learning, is a reciprocal process of becoming more; of knowing more, understanding more, and being better than we were before.

The role of school in our society is to enable students to become critically engaged individuals. Students need the confidence and problem solving skills necessary to navigate society and future challenges, equipped with a firm set of principles and a diverse repertoire of knowledge. As humans we are learning constantly and we learn best through experience, guidance, and experimentation. Like learning, teaching is also a continuous process and thus should be actively and constantly evolving as a practice.

Regardless of subject matter, our curriculum should be two fold: the basics of reasoning and literacy, and the critical development of the self and of the self in social context. Development of reasoning mean striving to teach fluency in speaking, writing, mathematics, scientific concepts, digital interfaces, programming, and even financial literacy. Critical development of the self is intentionally curated through exploration of art and music as a way to engage, evaluate, and dissect society and our student’s sense of identity and place.

As educators we are morally obligated to be honest with our students about the challenges they face and the world we live in. We need to trust in their experience and see it as valuable. As teachers we must be there for students when they fail, as we are when they succeed, and we must guide them to evaluate their actions and grow. We should provide them with skills they can use in the future to help themselves and to help others.

I believe teachers must actively work to make schools a place of learning for all and by all. We do this by continuing to learn ourselves and to engage with unfamiliar and intimidating concepts with humility, patience and dedication. I teach because I am called to encourage the next generation to be better than mine and the ones before. I believe teachers must seek to teach not only skills, but also what fulfills and motivates our students as people, as individuals, as distinct members of diverse cultural groups, and as future leaders and community members.