My mission: to develop life-long learners who value their abilities and work uplift others within their community.
What Makes My Teaching Style Unique What makes me effective as a teacher is my ability to connect with and motivate each student. My teaching techniques, assessment methods, and approaches to feedback establish me as a mentor and a partner committed to long-term student success. Students tend to recognize this and respond by participating more in class and working harder on their assignments. My almost twenty-five years of experience teaching martial arts significantly impacts my teaching style and I create a balance of discipline, authority, kindness, and respect for each person.
Why I Teach I strive to create an environment in which I mentor each student and the students provide additional support to one another; regardless of the subject, my focus remains on how the course applies to the students’ future careers and how to help each student achieve. Because each student performs differently, it is critical to know, understand, and connect with each student. I teach because being part of the improvement process is one of the most rewarding moments in life. Achievement comes in many forms and I derive true joy from supporting students as they reach goals. These goals are always different: acceptance to graduate school, not being kicked off the team for a low GPA, graduating with honors, passing a class on the third attempt, doing well on an exam, earning parental approval for a new romantic interest, figuring out what major to select, persevering through family issues, or gaining control after a stressful semester. The feeling of accomplishment is the same, though. That feeling can motivate us to strive for more and to achieve other things. Being a small part of that process is why I teach.
How I Teach If you walk by one of my classes, you might see us sitting in a circle casually exchanging stories or intensely working on computers and tablets. Students may lean over to assist one another with posting a blog. Students may erupt in laughter after someone makes a clever response to our Tweetchat. Students may work individually on worksheets and then share their responses with the group. We may watch a video clip and discuss it or tweet about it during the video. Students may act out a scenario to show how they can use what we have learned. We may pause our discussion to Google a word or concept. Students may be asked to complete quizzes, journals, activities, or create blogs and then share their work or reactions with peers.