Lansing, Michigan
Learning and Reflecting for Growth
Teaching is a Learning and Reflective Profession that is Bolstered by Intellectual Curiosity. To access the artifacts, click the links embedded into the title of each section.
Teaching is a profession where teachers should be constantly learning and improving their craft to meet the needs of their students.
Pedagogy of the Oppressed Presentation & Activity
Like many teachers, Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed is a text that is foundational to my beliefs in what education can and should do for humanity. This artifact comes from an educational I presented to student organizers at Michigan State University, which focused on how we can best meet the needs of the community by raising awareness through dialogue and love-centered pedagogy. For organizers and activists, knowing how to present and communicate "controversial" information to the masses is instrumental to the process. This activity and presentation reminded me that learning is a collaborative process, one that is not just between students and teachers but between people in general as we all work to raise our collective consciousness.
Designing a healthy classroom system involves having a grading philosophy that is fair, clear, and equitable for all students. As a part of this project for my TE 803 class at Michigan State, I broke down my grading philosophy and how I deliver feedback to students on their assignments. Providing my students with individualized feedback shows them exactly where they may be struggling, but I can also use it as a way to praise and encourage students that go above and beyond my expectations on assignments. I also allow students to go and make corrections to assignments if they received scores they're not happy with, but only if they discuss them with me first. Although students all receive the same assignment on any given day, how they interact with and interpret it is individual to the student. Therefore, they deserve individualized feedback that is focused on their growth and sharpening critical thinking skills.