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Teaching Philosophy

“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.”

 

~ Ken Robinson, Ted Talks 2006

 

“Aim to miss,” a teacher always told me. In the beginning I struggled with this, as it is easy to be seduced by the idea of perfection, particularly when faced with the alternative of being wrong. I eventually learned, however, that it is in this space of being wrong that genuine learning occurs, and it is in the mistakes that we attain personal growth.

 

I now know this period of trial and error is also a powerful opportunity to teach. I was lucky in that I had teachers that not only recognized my personal dynamic learning style, but also encouraged me in my failures. When I failed, they said, “try again.” It is this belief in oneself to be able to achieve something, even in the face of failure, that I try to impress on students. Because it is my experience that believing that we can do something is the beginning of how we learn.

 

The real problem is that in the beginning, the learning process is difficult and demanding. As a new teacher I am all too aware of this. I am in the thick of it with my students, grappling with how to teach them what I know and in the process learning more than I ever did as a student. This fear of inexperience can be so daunting. So I embrace it and, knowing that my students are experiencing the same, try to instill a sense of perseverance and optimism as they wade through the challenging and arduous task of learning. I plow ahead, sharing my passion and all the resources I can, hoping to inspire them and engage their sense of curiosity. I attempt to encourage learning by socratically asking questions that require introspection and hopefully result in some self-realization. I want to help them discover what drives them in their work, what they are passionate about, by designing curriculum that focuses on why, as opposed to how, they create the work that only they can.

 

By sharing my own work and professional practices and conversely asking about theirs, I aim to foster a positive learning environment based on mutual respect and the exchange of ideas. I attempt to engage students in discussion with myself and one another by inviting them to give their opinions and offering up my own. I ask that students take pride and care in their work by setting reasonable expectations of technical competence, thereby holding them accountable for the knowledge they already possess and allowing them to expand on it. I ask that they not only work with intention, but also speak to that work with intelligible insight, explaining their decisions and accounting for their actions. It is my belief that through this process of setting expectations and facilitating self-discovery, students are able to produce honest, meaningful and authentic work which ultimately leads to learning and growth.

 

I believe that photography has the power to change lives. It has the potential to be more than just a box that captures and converts light; it contains great capacity for expression and an awesome power to communicate. In much the same way, a teacher has the potential to be more than a translator of information; they have the opportunity and privilege to be a catalyst for self-discovery and possess the power to incite great change. I strive to embody these ideals as I myself continue to grow, learn and change as a teacher and artist, and I consider myself lucky to be able to encourage, witness and bask in the journey of others.

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