Below I have highlighted my teaching philosophy. This philosophy is always a work-in-progress and I hope to expand it further as I acquire knowledge and teaching experience.

I believe that education is empowerment.
I was taught at a young age to always value my education as “the one thing no one can ever take from [me]”. This is an axiom I live by and I make sure to teach it to my students. In this pursuit of student empowerment, I choose to promote 21st century skills in the classes I teach, thereby giving students the tools they need to navigate the world they will soon inherit. In order to prepare my students for the world, I emphasize critical, historical, and geographic thinking. In particular, I challenge them to speak out in class and challenge one another’s ideas, as I can not imagine learning without respectful dialogue.

I believe that relationship is everything.
My personal life experiences have taught me that learning can happen anywhere. Following this, people must people strive to relate to each other, but also to the unique environments we find ourselves in. Therefore all learning is lived experience. But learning to happen and growth to occur, all relationships must be establish on the basis of mutual trust between parties. By promoting healthy relationships based on mutual trust, as opposed to obedience and authority, learning professionals can build bridges between students, colleagues, disciplines, administrators, parents, and the larger community.

I believe that resilience is growth.
Students need to be taught how to successfully cope with failure, namely, that we experience the most growth by learning from all experience, even if our experiences are initially viewed by us to be unsuccessful or unrewarding. I also believe that a great teacher is a reflective practitioner, but exemplary teachers model this reflective practice for their students each day and provide them with the critical thinking and communicative tools they need to themselves become reflective and engaged individuals. By representing the concept of failure as a positive learning experience, students are allowed to reflect and develop a positive self image by creating positive mindsets, which also increases self efficacy.