The Purpose of Education
One of the most important purposes of education is to prepare students for life after school. As teachers, our job is not merely to deposit facts and figures into the minds of our pupils. Rather, we must fortify them with the knowledge and practice necessary to conquer life's many challenges. The purpose of education is to prepare students to navigate a diverse world, to succeed in the workplace and higher education, to become thoughtful citizens of a democracy, and to endow them with the skills of resiliency, empathy, and critical thinking.
What Children Need
Every child needs a supportive, caring, challenging, and stimulating environment to learn. As every child is unique and has different needs, it is important that teachers meet every student where they are at.
How We Learn
Learning is an incredible, infuriating, messy process that takes passion, determination, and resiliency. We learn when we listen to others, make mistakes, and try new things. I want to encourage active learning that focuses on higher-order thinking skills. Furthermore, I want to do all that I can to teach my students that learning is fun and worthwhile. I want to model for my students that learning is a lifelong pursuit that is rewarding, challenging, and personally insightful. It is my fervent belief that the more you learn about the world around you, the more you learn about yourself. Stagnation occurs when we stop asking questions.
How I Teach
It is of utmost importance that a classroom is actively engaging. I view students as autonomous and intellectual beings that are capable of higher order thinking skills. Instead of relying on a teacher to provide all the answers, students critically examine important questions and come to their own understandings. Instead of focusing on individual work, students work with others.
Why I Teach
The main reason I chose to teach high school students is that I want to learn with my students. I want to be in an environment surrounded by young adults who have the intellectual capacity to debate the world around them. I don’t merely want to challenge them; I want to be challenged. In this way, none of us are truly experts, and we all learn from one another.