Heavily influenced by Dewey, Rousseau and Blum my teaching philosophy is very student centered. I believe in letting students learn at their own pace and influence the way curriculum is presented in class. Rather then lecturing, I prefer visual aids and hands on learning. Learning by doing is a way to develop higher level thinking skills and helps students relate to the material being presented to them. I want students to be inquisitive and explore the things they want without being graded or penalized. Finally, I want students to make mistakes.  Mistakes are celebrated in my classroom because it means you tried something new and although it didn't work out you can learn from it. I will never give exams to try to trip students up, solely for assessment purposes only and they will never be based on memorization. Deep understanding, meaningful connections and learning by doing are the three pillars of my teaching philosophy.