Three Core Beliefs

I believe all children can learn. Learning is an ongoing process we participate in throughout our lives, and it has to do with every area of our lives: personal, social, professional, creative, etc. Learning as a way of life means that the person I am right now is different than who I'll be tonight, tomorrow, next week, and I see children in these terms, evolving, developing, and in need of different approaches and interactions according to who they are at the moment of engagement. For me this implies that screw ups as well as successes are not arrivals but landmarks in the road of life.

I believe learning happens through relating. We all have a need for interconnectedness, and we need to know and understand one another to learn. Our responsibilities to each other and the community at large also play into our development as learners. Everything I am will fall short if I don't somehow connect to you. The classroom is a place where through relating we practice connection, social responsibility, critical understanding of the lives and struggles of ourselves and others, and knowledge of power and how to engage it. 

I believe teachers need each other and their communities. We need reflection and connection just as much as our students. Teachers need to talk to, challenge, learn from, encourage each other. We need to build communities of teachers outside our classrooms just as we build communities of learners for our students. I think this will be so incredibly difficult to maintain throughout my career because the teachers' unions don't fight for it, few administrators promote it, and most teachers seem to fear seeing or being seen by their peers. I love our program at L&C because of my cohort, how each one of my peers has taught me and sustained me through these past weeks. I hear often about teacher burnout, and it's clear to me that if I'm to avoid it, I will need a rocking solid community of teachers whom I have to protect and who has my back, a teaching posse, if you will.