Teaching Statement

Recipe for Learning - Getting the Right Blend

Cooking brings out the learner in me! Recently, I have taken up cooking as a result of a new ktichen that we built in our house. I've been on a campaign to improve my cooking skills and to learn how to prepare a wider set of meals. As you might guess, part of this process has engaged the internet. On-line recipes have triggered some interesting thoughts about Learning models.
Go to one of the on-line recipe sites. http://www.allrecipes.com is a good example. I found a most compelling model for learning in this area:- I pick a "learning objective"- in this world it is a type of dish that I would like to cook. I search on the name of dish,
type of cuisine or even key ingredient. - I receive a list of ingredients, a step by step cooking process, some tips and techniques and even the ability to scale the receipe for diverse numbers of people. Most importantly, I have access to CONTEXT, which is reflected in theratings of other people of the posted receipes. I can even look at thehistory of those raters, to place their views in perspective.

Every day, I learn more about myself as an educator and strive adjust my teaching style. My teaching philosophy allows me the flexibility to keep up with the constant changes of educational technology, curriculum development, and student interest.
Teaching to me is like cooking—my metaphor for a cooperative, group-centered learning environment.
I like to teach and cook with inspired creativity, not with bored monotony. Some cook from standard recipes--I create my own using the ingredients at hand. Some repeat the same menus week after week while I prefer to continually come up with new presentations and inventions. I like to delight the diners, while others might disappoint or displease. In my view, the instructor is not alone as a master chef – we are a cooking cooperative of students and instructor striving together to create just the right blend of our ingredients.

Take a cup of…
Learning as an active process that requires dialogue, practice and continuous feedback.
Utilizing the diversity of student knowledge, skills and experiences as resource for learning.
Instructional activities that employ a variety and
evaluation methods and techniques to address different learning styles—because each student learns in a different way.
Communication that leads to positive solutions and relationships.
Flexibility and understanding

Add a tablespoon of…
Hard work
Honesty
Team play
Motivation and enthusiasm
Good listening

And just a pinch of…
Encouragement
High expectations
Creative assessment

Students respond wonderfully to hands-on learning experiences. (The presentation and gathering of the ingredients) For example, when I taught an introduction to digital imaging, I designed activities relating the topic to various disciplines. The history segment required students, working in teams, to piece together a mystery about a fictional town in the nineteenth-century West. We used digitized materials such as images of tombstones, letters, and newspapers. This exercise taught students about quality in digital images as well as how the context in which things are presented sometimes influences interpretations—which lead to a discussion on digital ethics.

I also require that students write in journals, class discussions and reflections on readings. When they write, they are thinking uniquely, in a way that isn't always possible in orally expressed thought. Thinking bared and fixed on the page can be traced, analyzed, extended, and elaborated. I see them writing as part of the recipe for teaching them to think critically.
My biggest hope for teaching is to show students how to do things in the world, to communicate their ideas to others, to connect, and to establish their own identity.

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