Welcome to my website!  I thought I would share with you my personal teaching philosophy.  I hope you find it insightful.

My personal philosophy is that an education is a stepping stone to a better life.  Education leads to self-awareness and self-awareness leads to self-determination.  I believe that we are lifelong learners.  Everyone is a student, a teacher, and a philosopher.

Teaching literature and communication courses has exposed me to culturally and intellectually diverse student populations whose needs and motivations vary greatly.  I view it as my responsibility to provide a safe space for my students to experiment, to explore, and to experience success and yes – even failure.  I consider it important to demonstrate to all my students that communication skills, including their ability to engage with diverse communities, are essential to their future achievement.  My job is to facilitate their acquisition of these skills.

Diverse student populations have diverse learning styles. I combine low and high achieving students in the same group for collaborative work, or, if I have a student that struggles consistently, I might ask a stronger academic student to pair up with him/her.  Graphic interpretations of a text give the right brain student an opportunity to shine.  I also utilize visual reinforcement of a text, such as movie clips, and I always try to apply whatever text we are studying to a “real world” scenario.  I frequently use checkpoint assessments throughout a lesson to ensure that my students are understanding the concepts being taught.  Sometimes this involves having the students confer with a peer and then sharing their thoughts with the class, or it might be an exit ticket that asks what they have learned, any questions they might have, and what they want to know.  This also includes a student evaluation of the learning goals and whether they are being achieved.  I have found that these student evaluations have been very helpful in recalibrating and improving my lesson plans to benefit all my students.

I consider it important to demonstrate to all my students that communication skills, including their ability to engage with diverse communities, are essential to their future achievement.  My job is to facilitate their acquisition of these skills so that they may develop their own voices.