Philosophy of Teaching.

I grew up listening to others read: my parents, teachers, siblings, and others. Their voices took me to new places and unseen worlds where I could see, hear and smell the characters while experiencing their joys, fears, hopes, and sorrows – connecting with some of their experiences and curious about others. I was able to experience things within and beyond what I knew. My teachers were keenly mindful of the questions and interests that danced in their students’ heads and the community and social influences that weighed on our minds. Through their read-alouds, I connected my life, my experiences, and those of my classmates to the curriculum; teachers opened the curriculum and invited us in. 

     These early experiences formed my philosophy of teaching. I believe that it is the teacher’s responsibility is to open their curriculum, remove barriers to access, and invite students into the academic and social world of schooling – empowering them to learn, grow, and succeed in ways that are relevant and meaningful to their lives and the dreams they have. This requires recognition that students are creators, the writers of their future; their identities and lived experiences are essential to telling “their story,” combating oppression, and challenging relationships of power based on differences in gender, language, culture and race, and sexual orientation.

     I enact my philosophy by grounding instruction in the conceptualization that learning occurs through social interactions where learners encounter new ideas as they acquire requisite knowledge and skills. I bring students’ literacies and lived experiences into the classroom, increasing their understandings of the world and helping them negotiate their places in it.

     Focusing specifically on literacy, I believe that literacies are plural and multiple, located within objective, rational, and sociocultural transactions that give them meaning. As a result, I think that literacies are about what people do with reading, writing, and texts in real-world contexts and why they do it. In the classroom, I provide opportunities for students to engage in collaborative work, discussion, and social interactions (e.g., sharing ideas, experiences, understandings) that build on what they know and what they bring to situations.

Like my early teachers who opened their curriculum to students’ literacies, interests, experiences, wonderings, and life worlds, I strive to empower my students to create and write their futures, tell their stories, and take action to influence change that is within and beyond the familiar.