Teaching Philosophy
The Map is Not the Territory
Everyone can learn. As a teacher, I guide students into greater self-awareness with subject material using exploratory methods as multiple learning pathways, including various techniques in visual, kinesthetic, auditory, and other sensory engagement practices. I also believe in pacing. Rather than cramming information as a fast-paced form of learning, we work and tend to new information with time, reflection, metaphor/analogy, and patience to dramatically improve human learning with approaches that build upon one another as layers of learning that carry through as neuropathway-centric changes and last a lifetime.
Learning is a process, and it is an adventure. It becomes fun, engaging, and deeply meaningful when we approach it with a sense of exploration and respect for our current knowledge. Using the Kolb Learning model and a constructionist viewpoint, we can make learning a spiral journey that is not just respectable but also integrative, long-lasting, and substantial. The five major perspectives in good teaching and engagement reflect a system of education that best represents my student-centric approach and teaching style centered on trust, caring, flexibility, improvement, social action, and encouragement. These five perspectives include transmission, apprenticeship, developmental, nurturing, and social reform, each contributing to the joy of learning.
Additionally, I am a What if Learner; therefore, as a teacher, I strongly prefer original thinking and trial-and-error problem-solving. I also look for patterns and relationships that connect my experiences to new information and allow me to explore multiple applications of ideas. Creativity is central to my teaching philosophy since my strengths come from somatic integration or what I feel in my body. Learning happens when we connect what is inside to what we have observed outside of ourselves, spiraling as a staircase into knowledge.
The map is not the territory…
The Five BIG Things
There are five essential elements conducive to learning. (1) The teacher is a guide. (2) Students feel safe and can learn in a relaxed environment (3) They should have access to hands-on activities, have choices, and let their curiosity direct their learning. (4) They should be able to practice skills and gain experiences to build from what they already know. (5) Students should implement technology.
You may also click on one of the following links to learn more about my Decision Making Process, Strengths (StrenthsFinder), and Leadership Style
Learning Style
A Spiral of Learning
One way to teach and learn is to incorporate inquiry-based approaches grounded in active learning, like the 5E Model. The 5E instructional model consists of five phases: engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. We also include spiral learning techniques under a Constructivist model and through differentiated assessments—both formative and formal.
Inclusivity Statement
The teaching materials use concise language that refrains from using too much legalese or scientific jargon that may be difficult to understand. They are also structured uniformly so that they are easy to read, comprehend, and follow. The lesson plan includes a text flow and culturally/target audience-appropriate images.
My goal is to teach adults and those interested in helping educate the public about the options to spay or neuter. I will incorporate inclusivity by using culturally appropriate language in a conversational, active voice that explains scientific language without jargon, instructive images representing a diverse population (not all the same race), bullet points, short words and sentences, and a sans serif and 12-point font.
I can adjust my materials and lesson plans according to the intended target audience using more age-appropriate words, books, and study guides. For example, advanced shelter medicine classes will have slightly more advanced learning than my Intro to Spaying and Neutering course.
Note of Interest:
I recently took a religion implicit bias test that measures preference over Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. I scored moderately, preferring Christianity over the other two religions. This surprised me because I am spiritual but not religious, and it made sense since I was raised in the Christian faith. I was even born in Christian County, KY. This influenced my understanding that we sometimes think we are neutral in certain realms, but our upbringing strongly influences our behaviors at the deepest unconscious level. As a teacher, I will empathize with this and understand that we are products of our upbringing. Bias may appear in every human due to our earliest memories and environmental exposures. Reverence for others, cultural relativity, is an important quality for teachers to possess and share with students.
