Philosophy of Me

Hi there! Thanks so much for stopping by to read my personal philosophy of writing instruction.  I hope you leave feeling as though you have a better sense of who I am, what I value as a future teacher of writing, and what I want to instill in my students.  In the next few posts, I will The most important thing to me in all types of instruction is that I want to see my students be successful in education as well as in life.  I believe in the process of learning and I love watching students gain that knowledge.  I have found that learning how to write is like cooking without a recipe, you have all the materials but you often just need to begin.  You use previous knowledge and a little bit of adventure to begin creating a new dish.  Writing and instructing writing often happens in a similar way.  Teaching how to write is like being a cooking instructor because you provide the tools and methods to cook, but the student often navigates through the cooking process individually at times and collaboratively in others.

Which leads right to my next point, writing is a process and as NCTE states, "writing is an ongoing process." The same way that I believe learning is an ongoing process, I have seen the ongoing process of writing in my life and in the lives of those I am trying to teach.

Each part of the writing process seems to have it's own process.  There is a process in pre-writing, as well as in researching, drafting, and even editing or revising.  This process can be tedious at times, but I believe a huge part of my job is to continue the conversation with my students at each step as they continue to work with the text at hand.  I feel this process is a very important life skill in helping students realize that the grade does not matter, but it is the importance of them putting their best work forward and what knowledge they gained from working through that piece.

I believe many things in life are a process and often we do not just arrive, even when we submit projects for a deadline.  In taking part of this ongoing process, I believe that students are preparing for their future and will develop greater patience in their work as they watch projects reach completion over time.

This quote by Arthur Ashe demonstrates this point further.  It is essential that students take part in that process, and keep going through that process as long as they can.

"Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome."-Arthur Ashe

I believe in the value of that journey and I think that my future students will benefit in experiencing every part of the process as well.