I believe that the student-teacher relationship is one of the most sacred traditions in the human experience. Everything I know and believe has been taught to me in some way by a teacher. With this in mind, I see myself as a lifelong student seeking out teachers in many forms. Everything that I do as a teacher is filtered through this lens. All people are curious and have the capacity to learn new knowledge and skills. Not only can people learn, but I believe we have an intrinsic drive to acquire new information. This probably is a relic of our evolutionary biology.
I am constantly reflecting on my own practice. I am interested in refining my approach, my ethos, and my technique as an educator. I have been fortunate because I have found mentors both in a professional and personal capacity to help guide me along my journey. I have taken their critical feedback to heart and grown from the experience.
I value students that love to learn and respect the process. My job is to recruit all of our forgotten students who have either lost their way or never found this love of learning to begin with. This can be a slow and arduous process. Some days I feel like I am making no progress at all. However, there are days where I do make breakthroughs. A common occurrence is when a student is either building something in Maker or struggling with a difficult concept in Math or Science, there is this perfect moment where they are on the brink of quitting and then flash, all of a sudden the light clicks on and they have got it! This is my white whale, I chase it every day.
I believe that manipulating the world around us is empowering. Exploring the world through more than one sense can be deeply satisfying. I have always loved building things and analyzing things that others have built. The blend of intellectual capacity and tactile dexterity should be the goal for most humans. This is how we get things done.
In Maker education students get to explore with their minds and their hands simultaneously. They are the designers, the engineers and the fabricators. They get to work with high technology and basic tools. They get to work in solitude and then share it with the world. Simply put, Maker education is everything the traditional classroom isn't. It is important to me that I am part of a movement that gets kids to practice skills they will not get otherwise. Plus it's fun!