Antonio Hamilton
ADVENTURES OF BOOT CAMP: an ePortfolio
In a summer like no other, with the sun beaming from a distance, Antham began his journey to becoming a TA. We proudly present...
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
Being a teacher is not a stagnant role, one is always shifting and changing in reaction to new experiences and knowledge gained. And even though I have not been a teacher, I believe that my experiences as a student, coach, tutor, and in this class, has given me a rough outline of how I would like to start off as a teacher. Stylistically, I see myself as a more casual instructor that outlines what my expectations are, but what to have a collaborative relationship with my students. I always want my students to feel comfortable to talk to me and ask any question. Setting up environment where I find a balance between “yes, I am the teacher” and “no, I’m not some god that’s above you” is what I will strive to do.
First and foremost, I want my classroom to be an open space where ideas and questions can be vocalized and asked without judgment, respectively. I think that in order to get a student to write authentically as themselves and not what you think they should write, shows that you care for their insights during class discussion. My goal and expectation of the functionality of my class is that it will be collaborative, with me not leading discussion day after day. This places responsibility on the students, displaying in my view, the importance of their ideas. The concept of expressivism is one that I probably value the most because I feel it encapsulates the goal of what we want our students to have: this confidence in their own individual ideas and to express those ideas respectfully and freely. At some point these students will enter in careers of their respective fields of study and they will have to be confident in their own ability to adequately perform. As a teacher, promoting this quality/characteristic will help them succeed in the class and in the future. Composition is just one format in which I can filter this goal through as I believe that the ability to construct a carefully well-written piece of composition will promote a student’s confidence in other areas that involves them sharing their ideas.
When it comes to responding to my student’s ideas in papers that they turn in, I do not want to be a teacher that focuses heavily on what they write, but how they are articulating it and if they are convincingly expressing it. What I speculate is that students who come from strict prompt writing essays in high school tend want you to validate if their ideas are good or not now that they have the freedom to select their own topics. But it is not for me to validate their ideas but for them to do that themselves. I merely want to help foster those ideas that they have into well structure composition focused on content and coherency (grammar is always an issue, but I feel that it falls underneath coherency). By me proposing questions or complimenting aspects of their writing, I feel will motivate that student to make what they have better. I found as a tutor that asking the student to explain their writing and what they do or do not like about it is more helpful to them at the beginning of the writing process than me just telling them what is wrong. So, if grading or having a conference over a student’s first draft, I will have them prepare some type of brief statement of what they like and what they think they are struggling with in their writing.
Self-reflection is important part of writing that I think that I will incorporated as all writers should be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of their own writing and not have someone else tell them what that is. One of the main goals of what I want my students to achieve or begin achieving is to be aware writers. I think that a lot of the times, as students we strive for feedback to guide and sometimes dictate the direction we take in a project or piece of writing instead of using feedback as a means to adjust aspects of a given assignment. Having students reflect on their writing will create this direct engagement with their writing allowing them to be conscious writers.
