As a filmmaker, the essence of my job is to craft experiences that hold value for others. My job in the classroom is the same. Whether I am standing behind a camera or at the front of a lecture hall, the same set of concerns remain rooted in the forefront of my mind. As I guide a group of people on a path of change from a starting point to an ending point, what meaning will this collective journey produce? How will I keep participants actively engaged during this stretch of time—sustaining attention like a fragile flame—and how will I remain deserving of that attention?  What will change as a result of the time we spend together, and how can I foster the ideal conditions in which that change can take place? These questions do not have easy answers, but in my experiences as an educator over the past three years—as well as my experiences as a student over the past two decades—a set of core values has emerged as a foundation of my practice. My personal teaching philosophy centers around an approach grounded in three conditions that build upon one another: emotional safety, authentic curiosity, and educational empowerment. 

​

1. Emotional Safety

​

I believe that a healthy atmosphere of trust and emotional safety serves as the critical infrastructure of any learning environment, like firewood that is necessary before building a fire. Hostile, intimidating classroom spaces inhibit learning, whereas safe spaces allow it to prosper. I try to implement this value in every personal interaction I have with students by leading with compassion and empathy, as well as in my specific methods of teaching. For example, in my classroom, when viewing and commenting upon student work, I approach critique as a constructive act of care. I frame my observations as ideas for improvement that could be helpful, not faults in the work to be criticized. I value my ability to pinpoint, articulate, and encourage a student's particular strengths as much as my ability to address their areas of potential growth. Through this framing of a growth mindset, students do not leave critique feeling discouraged and defeated, but rather excited to continue improving their craft. They also feel safe sharing work in front of the class, which takes an enormous level of personal vulnerability. 

​

Furthermore, for emotional safety to develop, diversity and inclusion are mandatory prerequisites. A student cannot feel safe while learning if their teacher refuses to respect their identity or make appropriate classroom accommodations to support their basic individual needs. A non-accessible, non-inclusive classroom is not a safe classroom. I hope as an educator to heal rather than exacerbate the additional challenges and wounds of social inequality faced by marginalized students however possible. I also hope to be an advocate for mental health and wellness, whom students can feel safe talking to when they need additional support.  

​

2. Authentic Curiosity

​

After trying to establish a culture of emotional safety in my classroom, my next goal as a teacher is to nurture sparks of authentic curiosity. As I prepare to teach a particular subject, I reflect on what I find most compelling about it, and approach the lesson from that starting point. Students can tell when my own personal interest is genuine, and it can can be infectious. Like my students, my mind learns best when it wants to learn—not when it is forced to. I implemented this when mentoring students on finding topics for their self-directed research papers in Film History, by investigating their curiosities and guiding them toward writing in that direction, which proved highly effective in sparking motivation.  

​

Many students have completely lost the joy of learning during their time in the education system, developing a main goal of following orders to earn a good grade in order to graduate. In this sense, traditional systems of grading frequently work against the cultivation of authentic curiosity. Systems of progress measurement discourage and disrupt actual progress every time they capture it inaccurately, which is frequent and inevitable—especially in the subjective realm of the arts, where learning is more difficult to assess in quantitative terms compared to scientific disciplines. Even when grades are applied in a fair manner that accurately reflects performance, their centrality as an end goal in students' minds makes external assessment the driving force behind their performance, as opposed to an internal drive to learn. I try, as much as possible, to set clear expectations in order to minimize reason for concern over grading, redirecting students toward curiosity as a primary source of motivation.

​

3. Educational Empowerment

 

With firewood prepared and sparks set forth, a fire blooms and starts to perpetuate its own existence, surviving in the absence of the person who started it. Once a student feels emotionally safe and genuinely curious, they are ready to thrive as a learner in an intrinsically motivated, self-directed capacity. In my classroom, I aim to create opportunities for students to exercise agency and take their learning into their own hands. In my animation class, I do this by assigning creative prompts with enough flexibility to allow students to self-determine their individual approach and level of investment. For example, one of my prompts instructed students simply to: "make a drawing that moves and grows," which could be accomplished in a number of ways. I find that once students are placed in charge and handed the power of autonomy to shape their own artistic projects, they become more invested than if they are following rigid directions within a punitive model. Grades for this were based on participation, thereby eliminated as a concern and replaced with enthusiasm to create without fear. Students know that the more effort they invest into the work, the more benefit they gain from it—but that benefit is for them to pursue, not for me to enforce. The results of that assignment were an outstanding and impressive set of animations, as diverse, unique, and imaginative as the individual learners in my class. 

​

In a traditional classroom hierarchy, there exists an unspoken assumption that students are acting in service to their teacher, performing according to the instructor's requests in order to receive approval. I operate within an opposite framework, in which I see myself as acting in service to my students. By setting the stage for their progress and providing access to the tools, support, and guidance they need in order to grow, I am empowering them to make progress toward achieving their own set of goals, not mine. The gift I am giving them is a foundation from which to continue learning after the end of the semester. By creating a meaningful collective experience that prioritizes emotional safety, authentic curiosity, and educational empowerment, I hope to provide education that starts within my classroom but continues far beyond it, becoming something much bigger than myself.   

​

​