Wrapping Up…

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
Cathy Blackwell

 

As an English teacher, my goal is to foster strong reading and writing skills. I approach this undertaking with humor, enthusiasm, and a recognition that learning centers on curiosity and enjoyment. My philosophy is that my students retain the beliefs I convey most passionately, which are:

• Strong reading skills are essential. Good readers interact with texts rather than merely accepting them. Interactive reading involves reading the words, understanding and evaluating their purpose and meaning, and reacting to both. Students must learn to absorb, consider, and question what they read. My role is to help students develop these skills and to demonstrate interactive reading in my own responses to student work as well as to course materials.
  
• Strong writing skills are essential. Good writers produce logical, convincing, and engaging texts. Cogent writing begins with comprehensive reading and thorough consideration, and it ends with a purposeful and confident product. Students must learn to write in a variety of formats, to modulate written voice as appropriate, to consider and revise what they have written, and to benefit from responses generated by their writing. My role is to help students develop these skills and to model them in my own writing, including my responses to student work.
  
• Strong learning experiences are respectful, dynamic, and interactive. Good teaching takes place in physical or virtual classrooms, student-teacher conferences, responses to student work, and electronic communications. Whatever the venue, good learning experiences are based upon a foundation of mutual respect among students and teachers. The best learning experiences are enjoyable; and the most evocative classroom experiences are often characterized by a delicate blend of student and teacher authority. My role includes modeling respectful behavior, exhibiting enthusiasm for course materials and activities, encouraging all students to participate in classroom discussions and group projects, and demonstrating my own willingness to learn from our joint experiences.
  
  

I believe that teaching is a privilege and a responsibility. My ultimate goal is to see students leave my courses with a love for reading and writing, a belief in their own powers of evaluation, and an enhanced desire to learn.