Teaching Philosophy
On the surface, Wallace Stevens’ poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird[1],” is exactly what it appears to be. Stevens simply states thirteen different ways to look at an object that is exceedingly common. However, at a deeper level, he tells us that there are many ways of looking at the world and there are many ways of looking at everything in the world. To paraphrase Susan Stanford Friedman, you need thirteen ways of looking at teaching and at students. “The point of Wallace Stevens’ iconic poem is epistemological: that seeing is multi-faceted; that what is seen must be seen from multiple points of view. Hold it up. Walk around it, mull on its multiplicities. Listen to others who hold it up, walk around it, and mull on its multiplicities. Resist fixity, finality, single perspectives” (479)[2]. Teaching is an ongoing learning process and it needs to be continuously reevaluated and changed.
I believe that learning must be an act of individual desire. It is impossible to teach someone who does not wish to learn. It is up to the instructor to make each lesson seem worth the time for the student to learn. It is always clear when a teacher does not believe in what they are imparting or is not interested in teaching the subject. My philosophy is to put myself in my student’s shoes and answer a single question: why is this important? If students can understand why something needs to be taught, and how it will help them going forward for more than just this one class, they will be invested in the subject and engaged in the lesson.
I believe I must meet students where they are. Not every class is the same and certainly every individual student comes from different places. An understanding of the importance of intersectionality[3] is vital to meeting students where they are. Students are more than a number or a demographic; they are all separate people who have a variety of life experiences behind them. It is not necessarily true that one explanation will be enough or make sense for every student. It is up to me to use language that each student will understand and relate to.
I believe it is important to be transparent about lesson plans and expectations. If students are unclear about assignments, it causes stress and anxiety which acts, often, as a hindrance to learning. My goal is that the students truly understand what I am attempting to impart, and the most important aspect is that they understand deeply. Since most learning goes on outside of the classroom, it is vital that I arouse an interest in the subject matter within the students. If the subjects are boring or they are too anxious, there will be no self-directed learning. If there is no self-directed learning, the students will only learn what I specifically teach in the classroom, and this will not be enough to sustain them in their college career and in life.
I believe in using a variety of teaching methods in the classroom. It can be just as effective to lecture occasionally as it is to let the students work in groups, both large and small. It is important to switch up teaching styles so that the students aren’t in the same frame of mind every day. In college, as in life, it will be necessary for students to learn from lectures, from their peers, and from self-directed learning. Using each of these methods in class helps to facilitate further learning styles. Additionally, students all learn differently; some by reading, some by listening, some by doing. It is vital that all these methods be integrated in the teaching process to reach students in all stages.
I believe that just as providing actionable feedback is an important part of my job, so too it learning to listen to feedback of my own. A continued attitude of learning must govern my actions every day. The feedback of my students is the foremost indicator of potentially shifting teaching methods. However, equally important is listening to ideas and suggestions given by mentors and peers who are also teaching. Continuing to be open-minded is vital to the art of teaching. I believe that if you cannot continue to learn and change, you cannot continue to teach effectively.
[1] Stevens, Wallace. “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.” Accessed 8 November, 2019, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45236/thirteen-ways-of-looking-at-a-blackbird.
[2] Friedman, Susan Stanford. “Planetarity: Musing Modernist Studies.” Modernism/Modernity, vol. 17 no. 3, 2010, p. 471-479. Project MUSE, doi: 10.1353/mod.2010.0003.
[3] Carbado, Devon W., and Cheryl I. Harris, “Intersectionality at 30: Mapping the Margins of Anti-Essentialism, Intersectionality, and Dominance Theory.” Harvard Law Review, vol. 132, no. 8, 2019, pp. 2193-2239.
