Teaching Philosophy

I align and position myself as an anti-racists, anti-homophobia, anti-transphobia, Lesbian, intersectional feminist, educator and activist. I pride myself on fostering and valuing my students identity, and am motivated by principals of equity, inclusion, and access within the classroom. My teaching practices surround working with students in a personal and connective manner, drawing from our own life experiences through a theatrical lens. I draw upon students' diverse identities and experiences to further shape the classroom experiences, and believe that they and I have so much to learn from each other. Theatre has unique attributes and impacts amongst students, it allows a space for students to explore new ideas, make mistakes, increase self confidence in and out of the classroom, allow students to explore sense of self, and become comfortable in skills such as public speaking, critical thinking, technical skills, and listening and responding. I allow these to be maximized within the classroom by creating a space where students feel safe to explore, and by showcasing exploration myself to my students within the classroom.

My pedagogy is rooted in culturally sustaining pedagogy, differentiation learning, and reflective learning, influenced by queer and feminist theory to further challenge power structures and promote equality in and outside the classroom and prepare students for the diverse world they will live and work in. Culturally sustaining pedagogy within the classroom is led through using the culturally diverse backgrounds of my students, and basing our curriculum and learning around them. This also means taking students' backgrounds and using their cultural experiences to create a more relatable and relevant learning environment. When we allow students to engage with relevant materials within the classroom, they are able to further understand and be more willing to engage and learn. Differentiational learning within the classroom will be used by allowing students to further explore special interests within the subject taught, and my teaching will be adjusted to further meet the students where they want to learn. This will be done through varying content, providing multiple learning paths, tailoring instructional strategies to my students needs. This is exceptionally useful within the theater classroom due to theater having so many career paths that require specialized education and exploration. Reflective learning will be deeply integrated within my classroom experience, with a reflection activity ending every class where students will be able to share their thoughts and experiences. This allows students to further examine activities, experiences, and feelings and allows us as a class to shape our future experiences around our past classroom experiences and feelings to further suit the future of learning.

My goals as an educator is to be deeply dedicated to my students through promoting self exploration and having a voice within their own education. To base my teachings around students' needs and identities and putting them first within the classroom. To work by preparing my students not only for their individualized futures, but also preparing them for the diverse world they will step into and prepare them to be leaders in this ever changing world.