Mission Statement: "Empowering students as independent learners"
Unpacking this mission statement
"Empowering students"
The act of helping others realize they are ultimately in control of how situations affect them. To become fully empowered an individual has to accept this fact and then take ownership of his/her own life. In the context of the classroom this means that I will be working to help students take ownership of their behaviors and learning.This philosophy mainly arose from my interactions with Mr. Craig Gray, my Krav Maga instructor and founder of the Ronin Empowerment Group.
"Independent learners"
I believe that a successful education story is one that ends with a student who can navigate the subject matter within a specific field without prompting from a mentor. This does not necessarily mean they have reached the level of content mastery, but instead refers to the fact that this individual now draws on an intrinsic motivation to seek-out and examine legitimate resources, interpret them, communicate findings to an audience, and revise his/her work continuously.A person with this mindset can accomplish things well-beyond what he/she may perceive as possible at the outset of a new learning endeavor. This philosophy rose from a number of experiences, the most relevant being my work in arctic ecology with Dr. Bob Hollister in GVSU's biology department, my experiences as a TA under Ms. Bobbi Jo Kenyon, and theoretical discussions with other Woodrow Wilson Fellows, Dr. David Coffey, and Mr. Steven Rierson in this course, Facilitating Learning Environments.
"Empowering students"
The act of helping others realize they are ultimately in control of how situations affect them. To become fully empowered an individual has to accept this fact and then take ownership of his/her own life. In the context of the classroom this means that I will be working to help students take ownership of their behaviors and learning.This philosophy mainly arose from my interactions with Mr. Craig Gray, my Krav Maga instructor and founder of the Ronin Empowerment Group.
"Independent learners"
I believe that a successful education story is one that ends with a student who can navigate the subject matter within a specific field without prompting from a mentor. This does not necessarily mean they have reached the level of content mastery, but instead refers to the fact that this individual now draws on an intrinsic motivation to seek-out and examine legitimate resources, interpret them, communicate findings to an audience, and revise his/her work continuously.A person with this mindset can accomplish things well-beyond what he/she may perceive as possible at the outset of a new learning endeavor. This philosophy rose from a number of experiences, the most relevant being my work in arctic ecology with Dr. Bob Hollister in GVSU's biology department, my experiences as a TA under Ms. Bobbi Jo Kenyon, and theoretical discussions with other Woodrow Wilson Fellows, Dr. David Coffey, and Mr. Steven Rierson in this course, Facilitating Learning Environments.