Teaching Philosophy

My Teaching Philosophy
For me, Enthusiasm, Flexibility and Change, have come to be the cornerstones of my teaching philosophy. Not sure I have them all down pat yet, but as with most things it’s an evolving process.

I believe that one’s philosophy, whether it be for teaching - or for life, has to involve a good portion of these essential elements. Especially in today’s world it is even more evident that the “essentials” of the information we learn today, may not be the “correct” information of tomorrow. Therefore an educator has to be flexible and open to changes and adjust their curriculum and presentation accordingly. Guess that’s why I’m taking this class!

Of course this is coming from someone who’s lived and worked in over 40 locations so far, and I’m still eager to add to that number. I love finding out how and why people learn and do things the way they do!

I’ve had the great delight in teaching the gamut of students from Kindergarten, thru to college students and adults and while they may have a number of learning traits in common quite often it is their differences that stand out and to which I have tried to respond to as a teacher or facilitator.

I remember reading somewhere, that someone said that education would one day evolve into more of being able to find the WHERE of the information, rather than the actual accumulation of the information. That always intrigued me. With today’s ever changing technology advances it looks like we are headed there and yet … helping the student to learn the skills to then “deal with “ the information once they find it. That’s where we come in!

Therefore, I also enjoy the challenge of fostering the critical thinking skills needed to use the information presented to the student while helping the student find that “one thing” that is ultimately important to them, that helps the “light bulb” moment happen. The finding process, the readjusting of what I do and how I do it for each class, especially when the social dynamics of the classes change, is learning process for me also.

Having a student actually “enjoy” the learning process I think is for most of us one of the most satisfying aspects of teaching. Quite often for them to do this, the teacher has to somehow show their own enthusiasm for the subject while also providing the students with the tools they will need to learn more on their own when a teacher isn’t around. I wish I had found Karl Menninger’s quote years ago – he said, “What the teacher is, is more important that what he teaches.” I think I would have been less rigid in my early days.

Having completed a course recently in learning new technologies, my views on the actual teaching philosopy haven't changed much, other than to stress how confusing all the technologies can be for anyone and the high need to really explain things in a clean consise way up front. Not only the "how to" instructions but the "why" and how it relates to other things. I'm fairly computer savy and even I had trouble trying to see how one thing was going to be connected to the other at times. I can totally sympathize with new users trying to play the "catch up" game!