Dreamcatcher

I had a dream last night that I was in my teaching credential classes, so I must be ready o_0

Don't call it a comeback

So I will be posting on this blog again, I forgot I had it. I may rename it and give it direction but for the time being I don't know at the moment

Philosophy

Philosophy of Teaching Statement

Teaching is a transitive verb with multiple participants, where participation is necessary in all objects for the action to be complete. Who is doing the teaching, what is being taught, and who is being taught are intricately woven integral  elements.  The harmony of these factors is what I will thrive for as an inspirational teacher of English in a nourishing classroom environment.

First and foremost, I believe that for knowledge to be taught by an individual who is knowledgeable then the structure of lesson must compliment the aims and enthusiasms of the learners. Each group of learners are unique from one another, regardless of maturity or motivation, if such variables are the same among two groups, then the groups are still distinctive from themselves. Furthermore, individual learners within their communal enclaves are idiosyncratic. What every learner brings with them is their own unique observation and understanding to the class, and this differs from learner to learner, classroom, or school district. Because of these distinctions, I believe that a classroom lesson plan should then reflect the students’ own knowledge and experience and what they want to achieve. By knowing my students and them knowing me, we will reach a synergy where our mutual learning goals will be reachable.

I know that it was William Arthur Ward, American educator, writer, and laureate, who said “The mediocre teacher tells. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires,” and those words are what I think it means to be a professional teacher. What is being taught and the success of learner acquisition is dependent on credibility and expertise of the individual who is teaching. As a teacher, inspirational leader, and motivational speaker, because a individual must be all three occupations to be a great teacher, I will constantly improve and update both my credibility and expertise in my profession of study. I will never stop learning because education is the pursuit of knowledge not its acquisition. As my students will learn from me, I will learn from my students. This is the main reason for my ambitions as a teacher, it is why I chose education as a profession. I love learning, it’s the best part of me as an individual. I want to instill that same passion into the persons that I will teach, despite my field of emphasis as an English teacher. All teachers should inspire learning, not just promote it.

In regards to my field, I will inspire students with my knowledge of English to teach them life-long skills in written composition as well as a respect and affinity for Literature (classic, modern, American, British, etcetera). This will give them a sampling of all aspects of our didactic language, if not inspiring them to further pursue English in their education, if only to give them a broader and more in depthful understanding of English as a pivotal subject in the makeup of our community.

These are not only my aims or philosophies as a professional teacher of English, these are my mantras, my doctrines, my text. A text can rally whole peoples around a belief, I hope that my text rallies you to believe in me.

I Guess I Shouldn't be so Critical

Sorry, if I'm a little irritable recently. I guess I expect too much from other people. I know I don't look the part, but I try to be professional in all aspects of my life. If something is outside my area of knowledge, I don't dare approach it as if I know everything about it. I like to believe that my expertise resides in my interests. If I know something, then I will try my best to enlighten you if I can. Then let you go on thinking what you well if that's what you wish, because teaching is not simply telling. Teaching is a transitive verb with two participants, meaning participation is required for the action to be successful. Am I growing bitter with age? I don't think so. I just don't understand how my generation can still squeak by with doing the bare minimum in everything. Do I expect too much of others? I expect the same in others with what is expected of me. Here's an example of what is expected of me at the moment:  (I guess I'm learning how to become a teacher.)

Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement

Prepared by Lee Haugen
Center for Teaching Excellence, Iowa State University
March, 1998

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Your philosophy of teaching statement should reflect your personal values and the needs of your students and your department. At the least, you will want to address four primary questions, usually in this order.

New for 2013

In this video, Susan Yager shares her experience in developing her own teaching philosophy statement as well as tips for the beginner writing for the first time.

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1. To what end?

2. By what means?

3. To what degree?

4. Why?

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1. To What End?

It is important to start by describing where you want to end. In other words, what are your objectives as a teacher? The rest of your philosophy statement should support these objectives which should be achievable and relevant to your teaching responsibilities; avoid vague or overly grandiose statements. On the other hand, you will want to demonstrate that you strive for more than mediocrity or only nuts-and-bolts transference of facts.

You would certainly want your students to learn the fundamental content of the courses you teach. But beyond that, do you hope to foster critical thinking, facilitate the acquisition of life-long learning skills, prepare students to function effectively in an information economy, or develop problem-solving strategies? What is your role in orienting students to a discipline, to what it means to be an educated person in your field? How do you delineate your areas of responsibility as compared to your students' responsibilities? In what specific ways do you want to improve the education of students in your field? Are there discussions in academic journals or in professional organizations about shortcomings in the education of students today or unmet needs in the discipline and do you have ideas about how to address those shortcomings and needs? If you are going to use teaching in P & T bids, you will probably need to connect to national issues or objectives.

These are questions that will require some thought and you will probably benefit from discussing them with other faculty in your department. Some people can sit down and bang out a paragraph or two in a short time but most of us become more thoughtful about the "big" questions when we bounce them off of our colleagues, consider their responses, re-evaluate our positions, revise, talk some more, etc. Your statement of objectives as a teacher is the most important part of your teaching philosophy and you should take some time with it. And if you take it seriously, you will probably come back to this statement to revise or add to it. Think of it as a work in progress.

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2. By What Means?

When you have a clear idea about your teaching objectives, you can discuss methods that you use to achieve or work toward those objectives. Here is where you can display your knowledge of learning theory, cognitive development, curriculum design, etc. You will want to explain specific strategies, techniques, exercises, and include both what you have used in the past and are planning for future courses. You will want to tie these directly to your teaching objectives and discuss how each approach is designed for that purpose.

Discuss how you make decisions about content, resources, and methods. If you include a field trip, what are your learning objectives? If you assemble a collection of readings, how did you decide what to include? How do you decide whether to use collaborative or individual projects? Do you use active learning or student-centered learning principles and why? Relate these decisions and methods to the kinds of classes you teach (large lecture, small discussion, lab, etc.) and make connections to your course objectives.

Again, relate your methods to national-level needs for teaching in your discipline whenever possible. If you have developed instructional materials that have been or could be disseminated, be sure to discuss them. If you have designed or are planning innovative activities, describe how they address specific teaching objectives. Have you presented a paper or a workshop at a professional conference related to your teaching methods?

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3. To What Degree?

You will need to discuss how you intend to measure your effectiveness vis a vis the objectives and methods you have outlined. Because your objectives are most likely related to student learning, then you will probably use measures of student outcomes to reflect your efforts rather than how many chapters you can cover from the textbook. Student evaluations are always a touchy subject among teachers but in large part that is because teachers have not devised their own assessment methods. Most of us are obligated to use standardized evaluation forms. But that does not prevent us from developing other means that are more directly related to our specific goals and objectives. Teachers who develop their own evaluations usually get more relevant feedback. But in addition, they usually get more positive feedback as well because they are asking the students to reflect on the most important aspects of the course.

If one of your objectives is to develop problem-solving skills, then you will probably want to test your students' ability to solve problems. In that case, discuss how you construct problems for them to solve, what skills those problems are meant to evaluate, and the level of performance that you are seeking. As Ronald Myers, Associate Professor in Veterinary Pathology pointed out in his teaching portfolio: I have come to realize that ultimately students learn what we examine for. If we test for learning of facts, students will learn facts. If we test for problem solving, they will learn to be better problem solvers....My long-term goal is to learn more about and then to implement improved mechanisms for assessment of students, likely in the realm of ability-based or performance-based assessment. There are many resources for improving assessment and student evaluations in the [CELT] library.

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4. Why?

Here is where you can be, if not grandiose, at least a bit grand. What, to you, are the great and wonderful rewards of teaching? Why is teaching important? How do you want to make the world or at least higher education better? When you are overworked and feel undervalued, to what ideals do you return in order to rejuvenate yourself and inspire your students? How do you want to make a difference in the lives of your students?

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Creative Drama Journal

To quote a man I admire, “How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?” Dr. Seuss opened up my world of creativity at a very early age and since then I have felt as though my creativity, like time, has been fleeting. When I was young I read comic books and delved into fantasy novels, engulfed by imagined worlds and fascinated by the fact that such worlds were thought of by the creativity of others. I also enjoyed playing video games and watching television, but more importantly I had a passion for movies. Others claimed that these divergents bogged down the imaginations of my generation, producing individuals who had trouble thinking creatively on their own. Then the Internet happened, and furthered this suspicion. Growing up, my imagination expanded by the creative outlets like TV, video games, comic books, or movies. They showed me how creative a human being could be. It inspired me to write, I had a knack for writing even though my handwriting was (and is still) atrocious. My English teachers braved my chicken scratches to tell me that I wrote creatively. However in retrospective, in ways I might not truly understand (maybe it was puberty), it felt as though my creativity peaked while I was in middle school and silently laid dormant in me through high school. My passion and fascination with art, writing, entertainment, and all other faucets of mankind's creative thrives never went away even though my own creativity felt numb. Then I graduated community college, transferred to San Diego State University, and enrolled in Creative Drama.

This semester my creativity was reawakened, when I went into my major I thought my chances of being creative in my education and in my future career in education were slim. Creative Drama is acting class, writing class, and an internship as a TA all rolled into one experience. We had the unique privilege of being students in the class and also had our opportunities to be teachers. Our first group project with a partner was exciting and rewarding, after seeing everyone else present their projects made me anxious to creatively prove my worth to others when it came to our time. Then individually for my storytelling presentation I wanted to showcase my talents and knowledge, however I felt as though I clammed up and didn't get to everything I wanted. I took acting in high school and in my community college, when I go on stage I do best when working off of someone and focus my concentration almost as if the audience wasn't even there. On my own, I feel the weight of it all more and more. Nevertheless, chances like my storytelling project do not happen a lot to me and it aspires me to seek out such chances in the future so that I can grow comfortably presenting and informing in front of others. My lesson plan for the Newberry novel and the lesson plan on my group topic, have taught me that you can indeed be creative as an educator (it is even necessary). Creating the activities allowed me to explore as both a student and a teacher. These are activities I will go back time and again to reference in my future career, I can't wait to see them come to fruition. Among having a revived creativity, I now have new aspirations of pursuing a career as a Drama or Theatre teacher. I've always loved the theatre, it is the oldest form of entertainment. To me, creativity and entertainment are deeply linked. We are the only animals on the face of the planet that is conscious of our own existence, creative entertainment sort of lightens this burden for us. Life is very serious and also very short. We have very little time together, so instead of fighting or frustrating ourselves with our own metafiction, we should enjoy ourselves. Another man I admire, Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “We must use time creatively,” and only now I am truly beginning to understand what that means. I have enjoyed profoundly our time together in Theatre 310: Creative Drama, it is rare to have a experience that tests you creatively. In my near future I will find more experiences to test my creativity so that it will continue to be healthy and may grow. Creativity is something that should never feel fleeting.

Ruins (a screenplay by Peter Williams)

Ext. RUINED SUBURBS - LATE AFTERNOON

A YOUNG MAN tattered by survival is walking nonchalantly down the middle of a desolate and demolished street. His footsteps echos out into the air, a crow “caws” in the distance. He smirks silently to himself even though he looks worse for wear.

CUT TO:

The street is littered with abandoned cars, the orange glow from the sun reflects off of their metal. It is not likely that the young man will be run over, the once busy suburbia is just a ghostly version of itself. He passes ransacked colonial style houses with empty front yard playgrounds. Perching his head up, there is the sound of bicycle clanging ahead of him.

CUT TO:

1st Person POV - Young man

A STRANGER in a dirty red hoodie is cycling towards the young man, a wooden baseball bat pokes out from the duffle bag securely wrapped around the back. The hood cloakes the stranger’s face.

CUT TO:

1st Person POV - Stranger

There are dirty and bruised hands on the handlebars while the young man draws closer and closer in front of us.

CUT TO:

1st Person POV - Young man

Just before the masked rider speeds by the young man, the hood blows back off of her head. The stranger is a GIRL with big brown eyes and short hair.

CUT TO:

While heading towards the camera, the young man smiles and blurts out.

YOUNG MAN

He-Hello!

The female cyclist passes the young man out of shot. He shuts his eyes for a moment and then opens them, shrugging off the chance meeting.

CUT TO:

The young man continues his route.

GIRL

(V.O.)

Hey!

CUT TO:

The girl slowly glides back into the shot and slows down beside the young man. Stepping off her bike, she shoulders it and keeps pace with him.

CUT TO:

The two travelers leisurely meander through the apocalyptic environment of the background.

GIRL

Do I know you?

YOUNG MAN

No… I don’t think so.

GIRL

Are you from the neighborhood? I mean- before or after?

CUT TO:

Sitting in the backseat among the fallen passengers of a vehicle, through the broken glass from the window of the driver’s side door the young man and girl come into the shot.

CUT TO:

The couple’s head turn as they leave behind a disabled minivan with a compressed front and the remains of a family that did not survive.

YOUNG MAN

(V.O.)

After…

CUT TO:

Their pace slows as they continue through the suburbs.

GIRL

Do you have food? Do you have a place to stay?

They stop and face each other.

YOUNG MAN

Not really…

GIRL

I found extra food. My place is not far, we can get there before it gets dark.

CUT TO:

Ext. HOUSE - SUNSET

The travelers stop in front of an old white victorian with cracked windows and hanging panes. The large wooden panel front doors are wide open, the front yard is filled with furniture and miscellaneous household items.

YOUNG MAN

(V.O.)

This is uh… Where you stay?

GIRL

(V.O.)

Not really… Come on, I’ll show you.

CUT TO:

EXT. SIDE OF HOUSE - SUNSET

Along the side of the house in a walkway narrowed by the neighbors weatherbeaten fence, the couple reach the outer entrance to the basement.

GIRL

This is an old house. I don’t think it had a basement like this.

CUT TO:

The basement’s angled metal shutters are tightly sealed by an elaborate chainlink with a lock. Above it on the side of the house is a small rectangular sliding glass window. The young man examines the lock.

GIRL

Whoever lived here was planning for something. I don’t think they expected what happened.

YOUNG MAN

Did anyone…

CUT TO:

The young man shakes the chains.

GIRL

I never got that to open. But I can get in easy enough.

CUT TO:

The girl lets the bike fall onto the ground.

CUT TO:

She fingers the small sliding glass window, it slides jaggedly and sticks several times before she has it ajar. She takes off her duffle bag squeezing it and the bat through the opening.

GIRL

Mi casa es su casa.

The girl lays flat on the shutters to the basement and inches into the side window. The young man sees her feet disappear.

CUT TO:

INT. Basement - Night

Inside, the basement is trashed. Whatever was organized is now spilled and cluttered. As the young man slides in with relative ease from the side window collapsing to a conveniently placed mattress, the girl is frantically rummaging through the room.

GIRL
Shit, shit, shit!

The young man picks himself up, keeping distance from the girl.

GIRL

Shit, shit, shit! How the hell did this happen again!

She screams in frustration, picks up her bat and starts swinging it at shelves and other breakable furniture.

CUT TO:

The young man’s eyes follow the girl’s hysterical violence.

FLASHBACK TO:

EXT. House - DAY

1st Person POV

From across the street, the girl climbs out of the side window of the old victorian house. She puts on her bag, slides her bat into it, gets on her bike and rides out of shot. The camera races towards the side of the house.

CUT TO:

The young man frantically jerks on the chain and lock of the basement doors. He then finds the window.

MONTAGE OF DIFFERENT DAYS AND INSTANCES

A) The girl leaves, the young man enters the basement through the window.

B) The young man exits with assorted food spilling out of his arms.

C) The girl leaves again, the young man enters and emerges with bottles of water.

D) The girl leaves again, the young man re-enters

E) In one instance the young man leaves with only an apple.

CUT BACK TO:

INT. BASEMENT - NIGHT

Falling to her knees the girl drops the bat and hides her face in her hands.

GIRL

(Sobbing)

Who is doing this to me?

The young man approaches her and kneels beside her. He slowly embraces her.

YOUNG MAN

I-I love you…

English Imitation Paper

Happy with the creative writing I was able to produce for an imitation paper on my Living Writers class. The assignment was to write mimicking the writer's style. In this case, this writer like to connect two narratives with lines and motifs. I had to use one line that he used in his book I read for class, and integrate it in my story. That line is in bold.

“Spring Showers” by Peter Williams

I don’t remember my past life, but what I do remember is always being hungry. Awoke in a spring morning by a sliver of light. The light grew and grew, I felt my legs shake free and then I felt something I never felt before… My back twitched outstretched. I started to slip down, out of the darkness and into the light. With my now free arms and legs, I held on. Finally, I lifted my head and was blinded by white. The purest white I’ve ever seen. Blinking, I found my world had turned upside down. Below me (or is it above me now?)  I saw the former shell of my existence. Behind me I saw my wings for the first time, a beautiful pattern of orange and black, the result of months of metamorphosis. I clung to my cocoon that last piece of self-identity I had left. I didn’t remember ever making my cocoon, I didn’t remember anything. All I knew was that something new happened to me. Saying goodbye, I let go of my former self quite literally. My wings caught myself on pure instinct, not letting me fall and up-righting myself. I now saw the world differently; I may never see it like I did once before. The field was decorated with bright colored flowers, my food and my new home all at once. That first day, turned into my first night. Then night led to my second morning. But it was not a morning like the first one I could remember, the light was replaced by a screen of gray. I would have to learn this life, if I were to ever to survive. The world was retaught to me in all its good and bad, its grace and horror. The clouds’ stomachs growled as water began to fall from the sky. Water, deadly and beautiful, scary and yet nurturing. We insects fear and revere water, but we treasure it as well. Besides my hunger, I also remember my thirst from my past life. A thirst that was never fully quenched. Now it was became compensated for in overabundance. I took shelter under the petals of a familiar perennial. I remember wondering to myself “What do butterflies do in a downpour?” As it happens, the answer is…

“They get the hell out of it!”

“Wait, what was that?” I asked the full-grown Monarch before me.

“They get the hell out of it, Caterpillar,” he said matter-of-factly.

“But, you have wings. Surely, butterflies like you can dodg—“

“No, we can’t. That amount of water wrecks our flight pattern. In fact, too much can kill us, you too little Catetpillar,” he explained by rudely interrupting me.

 I scooted in my usually way across the sun flower, onto an outer petal and closer to my new friend the Monarch. We were family; I was one of the monarch clan as well. But in this life I was a Caterpillar with the only dream of living to my second stage of life.

“Still, even though it has its dangers (especially in a downpour), flying must be incredible,” I marveled.

“True, you too will learn this. In time, that is,” he counseled.

“No, I don’t think so. This life is too hard. How ever did you get through it?”

“I don’t remember, but all I do know is… it doesn’t matter what you are in this life, what only matters is what you will become. Another monarch butterfly taught me that when I was a caterpillar like you,” he regaled.

“If you can’t remember your life as a caterpillar, how can you remember you were told that?” I inquired.

“I don’t know. But in life, there will always be things we will never know,” he assured me. We heard the clouds stomachs’ growling. We looked up as the light that once slipped through their cover was shielded. Everything turned gray.

“Better find some shelter, Caterpillar. We will meet again. Maybe not again in this life, but surely in the next,” he said as he began to flap away.

“Farewell, my friend. Til then!” I watched him flying into sky. I kept on watching, I could no longer make out the details of his magnificent wings. Drops began to fall from the sky. Sparsely as it did not arise any immediate danger to use. But they are times when lightning strikes, and doubly so with raindrops. One found its way and hit the back of my Monarch friend. I saw him stagger and fly out of sight. I couldn’t help him. Frightened, I crawled down under the perennial.

“What do butterflies do in a downpour?”

“Wait, what was that? Who said that?” I said looking around where I landed under one petal of the perennial.

Down below I saw a monarch caterpillar climbing up the flower’s steam to greet me.

“Oh, I was just asking what butterflies do in a downpour,” he asked.

 My answer surprised even myself.

This is another assignment I am proud of. It is an acrostic poem responding to another poem, similar to a poet that we read in class.

The He by Peter Williams

Near death I flew to that shore,

Every breath may have been last to bore.

Vivid was the sight of that house and its door.

Eager was I for living,

Raven eyes started weaving,

More and more I began breathing.

Old voice scared of circumstance,

“Raven! Raven!” in his chant.

Even though I said no word,

                       some foulness he still heard,

                                                                    but he,

                                                                               a man,

                                                                                           and I,

                                                                                                    a bird.