My Teaching Manifesto

My Teaching Manifesto
Regardless of the specific endeavors of any particular class, in room 235, I hope that what my students walk away with every day is another addition to their understanding of the extraordinary range of what it is to be human.  As I see it, all education, formal and informal, is about making sense of the world and our place in it.  Each thing we learn adds some depth or breadth or nuance to our understanding of how the world works, and how we can work our way through it.  If we can strengthen ourselves as readers and writers and thinkers, we strengthen the tools we have to do that work.
What I hope to do every time I enter the classroom is to provide students with opportunities to see themselves in the world around them.  I want them to know that when we study the humanities, we study ourselves.  I want them to see their stories in the stories we read; I want them to see their world in the literary archetypes we discover; I want them to understand that what they see and think and write can hold as much value as the works we explore.  I want them to know the content of our course is the content of their lives, not something aloof to be studied from a distance, but something we are immersed in and a part of.
To that end, I will strive to live by the following ideas principles within the walls of 235, and without.
Everything depends on relationships.  Everything.
First things first.
Love and learning are 2 things that always make room for more of themselves.
Words matter.
Be brave. Do the hard stuff.
Go all in and be fully present.
Teach deliberately.
Embrace mistakes and uncertainty.  They are the places where learning happens.
Take people as they are. Unconditionally.
Challenge expectations, limits, and past experiences.
If it doesn’t matter, do something else instead.
Be generous and compassionate, but honest.
Question. Think. Question. Think. (Repeat).
Look deeper.
See others; show yourself.

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