Ideas
worth spreading

Educational system is designed to standardize students into “one size fits all" kind of mentality. This way of “educating” is reshaping childhood experience into something that is prefabricated, controlled and generic. As a result, children’s capacity to think creatively and choose rationally is often restricted. The answer, it seems is in a Multi-sensory educational strategy that aims to meet every student at their level, allowing them to build skills and develop their personal style and creativity by engaging in real-world, meaningful projects

My teaching philosophy is driven by deep conviction that learning should always be focused towards developing ability to discuss variety of issues from different perspectives rather than memorizing facts. Students are encouraged to be open to the perspectives, values and traditions of other individuals and communities, to seek and evaluate a wide range of points of view, and to grow from the experience.

Intellectual humility and a willingness to hear opinions of others are teachable behaviors that are increasingly important in our interconnected, global world. Respectful disagreement should be understood as a meaningful, intellectual outcome of any discussion. Teaching open-mindedness engages students with different interests and is a way of educating students on the importance of maintaining a respect for cultural, ideological and behavioral differences. As a result students show empathy, compassion and respect towards the needs and feelings of others. This approach leads towards open, free and democratic classroom and empowers students for a lifetime of learning, independently and in collaboration with others.

Relationships are the foundation to any experience. Teaching is about connecting home, school, and community at a human level. Children and Parents connect with teachers that are transparent, unique and authentic.

Students learn more deeply when the information presented is accompanied by a visual image. Technology can transform one dimensional lesson into a memorable experience. This isn’t just about flooding classrooms with television sets, computer screens and latest technology and making things look pretty - It’s about making lessons meaningful, useful and engaging.

Being "right" is based upon experience, which comes from the past, so it's safe. it's also boring and out of date. It's the opposite of originality. Encountering ideas with innocent sight, unclouded by judgments, labels and definitions allows students to see from a new viewpoint, one that is not conditioned by what they expect to see. By approaching unfamiliar situations with courage and forethought gives students ability to explore new roles, ideas and strategies. While learning is often calculated mental process, creativity comes straight from the heart, and the more children speak from their hearts the more freedom they have to do something amazing, artistically and academically.

Embracing accidents and avoid stigmatizing mistakes has clear learning value. Teaching methods that center on “productive failure” is more challenging but students ultimately benefit - both academically and emotionally. For many children, the fear of failure is directly linked to self worth. Students will often put themselves through unbereable psychological stress in order to avoid failure and maintain the sense that they are worthy. Performance based school culture is not helping, but there is an alternative and it involves guiding students to embrace the very failures they’re trying to avoid so that they actually benefit from making and correcting them, rather than avoiding them at all costs.

In addition to coming from a different language backgrounds, ELL students often come from a different cultural social and political background. Children feel enormous pressure to conform. This process of “trying to ‘fit in’ not only happens with immigrant children but with children who already live in this country and are going through the process of assimilation to the dominant culture.   Linguistic diversity has commonly been viewed as a temporary, if troublesome, barrier to learning. Bilinguals in the United States are often regarded as an oddity, a problem, or at best as quaint since they were associated with immigrants. It is crucial that teachers develop appropriate help-giving practices and intervention strategies that take into account the historical and cultural experiences and influences.

What are you passionate about? Asking children those fundamental questions lies at the heart of good teaching and it ultimately embraces all of the things children are passionate about. This simple yet deep reflection is priceless when connecting with the children you desire to reach. It is unfortunately often overlooked leaving the students with a generic lessons and lifeless activities. This kind of student centered, reflective learning environment inspires students to ask questions, to pursue personal aspirationsand to develop the imagination and motivation.

Play is an important part of children's learning and development. Play based learning activities have positive influence on children’s cognitive and intellectual development. Test focused - overly structured education often ignores crucial role that play has in bridging cultural gaps and improving academic achievement. Incorporating play into teaching requires no exceptional qualifications and no special combination of time, place and circumstance. It's an opportunity that is presented to us all.