"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take"
A STRONG Work Ethic is key to learning - so lets get STRONG together.
The Student's Teacher
"The career of Gaius Julius Ceasar, like that of any Roman before him who aspired to greatness, had been a succession of such crisis points."
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
DISCRIMEN: MAKING WISE DECISIONS
DISCRIMEN: 'crisis point' or 'dividing line'. My Teaching philosophy recognizes that often there are NO easy decisions. In this fast-paced life, we are constantly faced with decisions about how one should spend their time, money and energy. Akin to Ceasar, and his decision to cross the Rubicon river, forcing civil war upon Rome, and dividing lines between definitions of "liberty and despotism, anarchy and order, and republic and autocracy" (Holland, p. 14), students too, are likely to encounter many of these types of decisions during their formative years. The question I pose to them is; how can WE make the best possible decisions with the information at hand? Even with this mantra, there will no doubt be mistakes and bumps along the way. This is what learning is all about - maximizing our information and knowledge in order to make the best possible decisions.
In my class and in my life, I try to teach students what it means to make 'good' decisions. Through a keen perspective towards history, current events, media literacy and language, I ask students what it might mean to live ethically - and the possibilities and impossibilities that stem from these decisions and their actions.
Professional, insured carers make sure your dog has a vacation as great as yours!
My Goal is to facilitate a learning experience where students are engaged and want to continue learning based on their high level of engagement. "From this point of view, the principle of continuity of experience means that every experience both takes something from those which have gone before and modifies in some way the quality of those which come after" (Dewey, pg. 35). It is therefore my goal to modify these experiences in a positive format that perpetuates a passion for knowledge and cultivates a 'joie de vivre'. I strongly believe that learning and 'field' experience are vital to the educative process.
ACTIVE EXPERIENCE
21st CENTURY TEACHING: AFFECTING AFFINITY SPACES
“Affinity spaces”, described by Gee (2004) are spaces in which “learning becomes both a personal and unique trajectory through a complex space of opportunities” (p.89). These affinity spaces resemble learning communities that unite common interests, encourage tacit practical knowledge, and experience leadership as a porous resource. My lessons encourage this type of thinking whereby the classroom acts as an incubator for thought, new experiences and collaborative learning. I am a life long learner first and foremost. and what better place to learn that in an environment that fosters a shared sense of community.
The fact of the matter is “young people today are often exposed outside of school to processes of learning that are deeper and richer than the forms of learning to which they are exposed in schools” (Gee, 2004, p. 107). I want to bring THAT type of excitement back into the classroom.