Statement of Learning Philosophy

Written March 28, 2020 - Still very relevant today!

Throughout the past 20 years, I’ve had the unique privilege of serving with learners of all ages: elementary, middle, high school, higher ed, educators and school leaders. Further, I’ve learned with staff and students in low-income settings as well as those in “high-performing” demographics. Also, I’ve worked with students with myriad disabilities as well as those with exceptional learning capacities. From these experiences I present my Statement of Learning Philosophy.

I feel compelled to begin with the fact that ALL LEARNERS ARE CAPABLE OF SUCCESS holistically: academically, socially, and emotionally. I’ve been very fortunate to learn experientially this to be true. Recently, I created a blog post regarding this topic identifying two main contributors: belief and effort. From belief comes action, which also creates a culture. Effort leads to systems and accountability.

Next, I’ll present “21st Century,” otherwise known as “Future Ready,” learning practices such as blended, personalized, differentiated, project-based, data-driven, and student-directed learning. We strive for our learners to demonstrate the “4 C’s”: communication, collaboration, critical-thinking, and most importantly creativity. This is in stark contrast to the traditional, staff-directed, one size fits all approach to professional development and teaching. We accomplish these goals by listening to all of our stakeholders: students, families, community members, local businesses, and staff members. Also, we shape our learning experiences to match the ever-changing needs of the shifting workforce.

Specifically, as a leader and educator my primary goal is to create independent learners—independent of me! This is also opposite to the traditional model of the adult as expert. My pedagogy is designed to foster confidence, problem-solving skills, technical fluency across multiple media, teamwork, sustainable practices, and more. I achieve this through a blended learning platform where staff and students engage with digital content scaffolded to their unique desires, needs, and levels of competency. Most of my time as a leader or educator takes place out of the classroom, preparing differentiated content accessible through multiple means of engagement. During class time, my role is to clarify expectations and tasks, and to facilitate the discovery-based learning process.

As far as assessment, staff and students demonstrate competencies through authentic, performance-based tasks. These project-based assessments simulate real-world scenarios and are rich and interdisciplinary focusing on those 4 C’s: creativity, collaboration, critical-thinking, and communication.

In summary, my philosophy of leading and teaching has evolved over the past 20 years with the times. 20 years ago, I didn’t use the internet and didn’t have a cell phone. Our world has drastically shifted, and my pedagogy strives to keep up. In fact, I don’t use the term “teach” anymore, since it implies imparting wisdom onto another whether in professional development or classrooms. Instead, I prefer “Lead Learner.” We are all learners and are all co-learning and co-creating our futures as our world changes ever more rapidly. Thanks for reading.