My goals as a teacher are to prepare students with critical everyday skills, provide them with a relatable means of understanding the material and facilitating meaningful conversations. My role as teacher is to guide my students by using personal anecdotes, popular culture and discussion-based reflection to attain these goals. My teaching philosophy stems from my time teaching English to Buddhist monks in Laos. While there I found myself explaining simple words that we take for granted. I found that by working from the perspective of English language as a second language there were certain ways of passing on the tools to assess and make sense of the simple and complex attributes of the hidden symbols of everyday language. My goals and techniques attempt to replicate the simplicity and relatability that I was able to establish with my students in my class in Laos.
My first goal is to prepare students with critical skills, such as interpersonal interaction practice, responsible critical thinking and acceptance and respect for others’ positions. Having my class predicated on discussion-based activities provide the context for students to foster these skills. I help facilitate their journey through the material and their group interactions by presenting the class with multiple methods of completing the tasks and modeling how to be respectful in a group. These critical skills can become tools that students can use in their everyday life. This is explored specifically in my classroom through the ways that I structure of group discussions and assignments that foster the development of these skills.
My second goal of providing my students with relatable means of understanding the material becomes a reality through my activities, presentations and the topics discussed throughout the semester. My classroom is organized around this goal in order to ease the tenuous perceived contentious relationship between busywork and opportunities for learning. With this in mind my presentation of content and specific activities are based on self-reflection and interesting cultural phenomenon that correspond with the students’ interests and realities. These methods of walking the line between busywork and relatable learning will allow the student to get at the material and understand the goals of the lesson without causing distress or annoyance because the concepts to be learned are weaved into the interesting and self-reflective nature of my presentations/activities.
My third goal of facilitating meaningful conversations takes place through my open seminar-style classroom setting. By providing a space for and modeling for meaningful conversations the students are able to gain a greater understanding of the social forces that impact their everyday life, the means to navigating sensitive situations and finally the means of discussing things academically. Students learn to be critical and question things from a respectful and academic standpoint, as well as find a space to reflect on their own situation, thereby creating knowledge of the material and the different means to find the answers.
My overall goal is to provide my students leaving my classroom with the scaffolding that they will need throughout their academic and personal careers; critical skills, a relatable means of understanding their world and maintaining meaningful and respectful conversations.
My first goal is to prepare students with critical skills, such as interpersonal interaction practice, responsible critical thinking and acceptance and respect for others’ positions. Having my class predicated on discussion-based activities provide the context for students to foster these skills. I help facilitate their journey through the material and their group interactions by presenting the class with multiple methods of completing the tasks and modeling how to be respectful in a group. These critical skills can become tools that students can use in their everyday life. This is explored specifically in my classroom through the ways that I structure of group discussions and assignments that foster the development of these skills.
My second goal of providing my students with relatable means of understanding the material becomes a reality through my activities, presentations and the topics discussed throughout the semester. My classroom is organized around this goal in order to ease the tenuous perceived contentious relationship between busywork and opportunities for learning. With this in mind my presentation of content and specific activities are based on self-reflection and interesting cultural phenomenon that correspond with the students’ interests and realities. These methods of walking the line between busywork and relatable learning will allow the student to get at the material and understand the goals of the lesson without causing distress or annoyance because the concepts to be learned are weaved into the interesting and self-reflective nature of my presentations/activities.
My third goal of facilitating meaningful conversations takes place through my open seminar-style classroom setting. By providing a space for and modeling for meaningful conversations the students are able to gain a greater understanding of the social forces that impact their everyday life, the means to navigating sensitive situations and finally the means of discussing things academically. Students learn to be critical and question things from a respectful and academic standpoint, as well as find a space to reflect on their own situation, thereby creating knowledge of the material and the different means to find the answers.
My overall goal is to provide my students leaving my classroom with the scaffolding that they will need throughout their academic and personal careers; critical skills, a relatable means of understanding their world and maintaining meaningful and respectful conversations.