My ultimate goal as an educator is to teach students how to become a better human and how to think deeply. I achieve these goals through relationship building, setting and maintaining high expectations, and modelling desired behavior.
When I say "become a better human," I'm focusing more on the soft skills. I specifically think of the values I learned in camping: respect, caring, honesty, responsibility. These are things I model and encourage in my students every day. I emphasize the importance of being part of a community and caring for and supporting the people around you. I strive to encourage students to bring more good to the world around them.
"Thinking deeply" mainly focuses on independent and critical thinking. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to think independently and critically in modern times due to various factors. I try to teach students to slow down and really reflect on what they're actually thinking. I ask them to think creatively, to think critically, to think curiously, etc. This encouragement gets them to ask more questions and care more about the things they're learning.
At the center of all my teaching philosophy and practice is student relationships. Students need to feel safe and have trust in their teachers to be able to step out of their comfort zone into their zone of growth. Most of my relationship building is done in the small in-between moments with students before, during, and after class. I find that most of my students end up feeling safe to make mistakes and be themselves when in my classroom.
I like to label my class as a "personalized safe space." I intentionally include the word personalized because each student may have a different definition for what their safe space is. One student might prefer to leave everything at the door and simply spend a class period escaping in the world of Spanish. Another student might prefer to come in and share their thoughts and feelings in a safe environment where they can be appropriately supported. The students are the ones who individually decide how they would like to use the classroom as their safe space. We establish ground expectations and agreements, and students can personalize from there.
Overall, when students trust me, they are more willing to try new things and more openly express themselves through creativity and curiosity.
From the very beginning of the year, I set high expectations for my students' behavior, academics, and overall achievements. Some of these expectations are often met with resistance, but I consistently maintain them while providing students with any necessary supports. For example, this year I raised the expectation for more vocab memorization and testing. Students were very resistant at first, but once they saw that the vocab quizzes weren't going anywhere and actually experienced the benefits of having vocab memorized, they began to study daily with little complaints or hesitation. In fact, they even began looking forward to the various study techniques we developed over the year.
Leading by example is a key factor in my teaching and general behavior in the classroom. If I'm asking students to behave in specific ways or do certain things, I also do those things. This achieves multiple goals. First, I provide a visual example for students to imitate whatever the desired behavior is. It makes it more concrete for them and easier for them to follow. Second, it shows I'm asking them to do something for a reason, since I'm also doing it to achieve some goal. Third, it supports my frequent claims to be doing things with them and getting through challenges together. Shared routines and behaviors further build the sense of community and shared responsibility.
One of my frequently modelled behavior is my honesty and vulnerability. This is something my students often comment on and state as the reason they feel comfortable in my class. I see the truth behind their words in the way they open up to me and their classmates, as well as their increased efforts in the class overall.