When I think of my teaching philosophy, I begin by articulating my educational philosophy: Education should encourage individual autonomy while creating value in the lives of the student, teacher, and society in which they live. There can be no simple transfer of knowledge without simultaneously developing the wisdom to use that knowledge. With this belief about the purpose of education, I set off to teach my courses each semester. While each course may have different content, goals, and objectives, I hold all my courses and myself accountable to this larger educational purpose. 

My teaching philosophy could be said to be the objectives that accomplish the goals that are my educational philosophy. I teach to create value in my student's lives. Encouraging students to connect the dots between the course's goals and objectives and their own existence. How and why does the course content matter in their lives? What can and will they do with it? Beyond just knowledge, what value does it hold to them individually? What potential value does it hold in society? How can they individually take ownership of the content and apply it in new and innovative ways? Ways that they alone have the power to produce. 

I am keenly aware that every action I take, whether the students are aware of it or not, affects their view of the course and thus ability to embrace the content. I have high expectations for my students and know that I must live up to them myself. I model the behavior I expect to see in my students. I come to class on time, with a smile on my face. I am well prepared for the day's activities and have set the expectations and assignments up ahead of time through a robust online course environment. All assignments with associated due dates, examples, and rubrics are available on the first day of class. By creating a high level of transparency in expectations and grading, I free up my students to spend their time wisely getting to work connecting the dots of the course to their lives. As a visual learner myself, I often envision my entire course as one of the dot-to-dot worksheets children, and I must admit my adult self, enjoy doing as they learn their numbers and letters.  Connecting A to B or 1 to 2 and going along until you finish and reveal a picture you had been guessing at all along. This visual encourages curiosity and self-discipline, both qualities I encourage in my students.

What does this dot-to-dot work look and feel like in my classes?  It might seem like a linear and maybe narrow reference, but in fact, it is structured freedom.  Most of my students are the product of a test-driven memorized k-12 education, and thus structure is a familiar place for them. Education can be a safe place to fail, learn, and expand one's capacity. Structure and clarity of purpose exist in my classes to create this safe environment.  But just because there is structure does not mean there is a lack of student choice or a forced linear path that constrains creativity. My students are presented a myriad of options allowing them to customize their dot-to-dot and make it their own; they don't have to go from A to B . . .they may choose E or Q as ways to connect the material.  Some resist. "Which prompt should I pick?" they say. "What speaks to you? What is most interesting? What is the most challenging option?" I encourage. "I don't know," they persist.  And so, the autonomy begins.  Who are they? What do they care about?  How do they connect to the content?  I provide space for them to figure that out.  Through the structured freedom of my classes, they take risks and expand with the knowledge they gain.  At the end of the semester, these choices are the ones they remember.

I ask the following questions about all the assignments/activities I create: "Is this real? Is there any way I can make the assignment more applicable to the student's lives? Is there any way to increase the engagement?" Over the years, this has transformed quizzes into group scavenger hunts, stale/canned speech prompts into community engagement activities, and reading texts or watching films into interactive student-generated curated content.

Students' lives are moving forward at light speed, and what I do in my role as mentor/facilitator is slow them down and encourage them to pause, process, reflect, and question; they need to do this in relation to their lives. If their lives are full of social media, Snapchat, TikTok and selfies, then it is my responsibility to see how that world collides with the content I am teaching.  I meet my students where they are and then encourage them to take a journey and expand their capacity. Using contemplative pedagogy strategies in my classroom allows students to learn these reflective skills and gain the ability to pause and create space in their minds for new ideas and creativity. Students are constantly sharing in final reflections how they have used the mindful meditation or breathing activities they learned in my class in all aspects of their lives—learning strategies for creating value in their lives. My goal is that they leave my class having learned a great deal and knowing they have a great deal more to learn.  The specific content they master in my course, be it theatre, education, or oral communication, should immediately be accessible for them to use in their lives, thus seeing the value it holds for them and those they interact with.  Yet, they should know how to grow with this knowledge, learn how to feed their inquiry, how to gain more wisdom through time. Rather than running forward consuming everything they see without knowing why they can start to question, edit, create, and consume purposefully to create value in their lives and the lives of those around them.  

Most of all, I want students to leave my class happy and empowered.  This is also how I want to leave each class as well.  Together we grow. Tomorrow is an opportunity.