14.9.15

Philosophy and Purpose

I told my students this week that I am excited to teach this year because of the philosophy and purpose that I am bringing to the classroom. This philosophy and purpose is the result of new learning and reflecting that I did this summer and my years of experience as a teacher. I shared this philosophy and purpose with my students and collected their responses. I took a sentence from each student's response and rewrote them in one paragraph in no particular order. Underneath each paragraph are six word stories that groups wrote in response to an image of freedom. Students also created a group tableau to complement their story. I'll be sharing these responses with students this week. I hope we can live up to these expectations!


Student Responses to English Class Philosophy and Purpose

To educate and be educated by and with one another to liberate minds, find peace, and participate in the validation, humanization, and freedom of each other and all people.

EAST
This motivated me to take partners and sources I have to work with into my hands as a gift and not to waste it. Everybody will get a chance to use their mind and share their opinion. You didn’t answer simple questions that you stated in the paper, which makes me curious. I think it might take some getting used to, but it will work most likely. Give another person a new way to think, and give them another path to open and explore. I like listening to other people’s answers or questions. When I do, I get a better answer or deeper understanding. This philosophy basically mean to respect, support, and think about yourself and others. This shows that all people can have freedom for each other and can fight for it. As a teacher, do you assume that we’re not at peace? Because as a student, I can tell you, I am not at peace. Be FREE. LOVE YOURSELF. Why are we here? No matter who you are or how you look, you should still be treated respectfully and get the same amount of education. I’m not sure how finding peace fits in with everything else. Approved and Disapproved by society. To liberate minds inspired me along with finding peace. To work together and help each other. The philosophy is similar to the one I use when I want to learn. Finding peace can be difficult for people. I think it gives us the right to use our voice, share our opinions, and share who we are to others. PEACE.

These chains won’t hold me back.
Freedom, let us have a voice.
Faith’s attempting to leap to freedom.
We are all in invisible cages.
Freedom can give you many different emotions.
Be free and don’t be stopped.

WEST
FREE. The cup of freedom, love, and peace is English class. Teach me too. The philosophy motivates me to speak my mind and respect other opinions. How could this course free or liberate us when our opinions vary? What motivates me is the freedom of all people and each other. I love peace and being nice to people. I’m curious because I never had a teacher that can learn something from the students. I’m curious about how to want to learn from us. “The Passing of Knowledge.” One thing that motivates me is that we aren’t just learning reading concepts; we are reading to serve a higher purpose in the world. FIND PEACE. I’m curious about what may be going on. I wish to change the paradigms that society has on me. The liberation of my mind motivates me to be more socially and academically involved in everything around me. I connect to teaching the teacher and liberating minds. At SLA, the students get a lot more freedom. Everyone is still learning, and as a society we should teach one another and set an example. I feel that everyone should be free.This philosophy is something that motivates me because it motivates me to do more. I believe everyone has the right to be treated equally and fairly. Some people have freedom, but in some ways they do not. You can feel free to speak your mind without anyone judging you. You have the right to speak your mind. Everybody needs FREEDOM.

Freedom is the right to soar.
He will never truly be free.
He escaped to the promised land.
Finally free, but something’s left behind.
You sovereign yourself, others will not.
The fish is jumping for independence.

FALL
Sand pit of misrepresentation, inaccuracy, misinformation. Learning from other people is learning a new way of thinking, and is something that really captivates my attention. To me, it means that we will be doing a lot of critical thinking and not just on a specific topic but multiple. I think muslims and people of color, black people especially, need to be humanized and freed. I connect with the idea of learning from others about their view of race and the whole thing going on with the police. If everyone was to follow this philosophy, I think everyone would do great in English. We, as human beings, have to learn from each other, in order to evolve into a better people as a whole. I would like to create freedom within my own mind so I can be proud of my education and everything possible with it. I am not motivated and excited to do more work like this. I think it will be a great learning experience for the entire classroom. This motivated me to stop being so judgemental and see people for who they truly are. It gives me a vision of human society working together in order to have a life full of education and freedom. No one is perfect or knows everything, so when I hear what they have to say, I se back and reflect. I connect to the deep thought and questioning part of this philosophy. It’s important to be open to learning new ideas and being open minded in general. It can be related to a range of topics: racism, sexism, feminism, immigration, stereotypes, and many more. We also need more peace and less fights because it’s just making the earth worse. Finding peace inspires and motivates me because I feel as though that is something everyone needs to work on. To me that quote was very powerful and it really makes you think. This brings me to the idea that this course is the course that would effectively turn us into real life people. The ones who are responsible for their actions. I think finding peace has a lot of meanings, which helps me get excited about that. That even motivates me to keep thinking, to not give up on me thoughts until I get a good idea of what the picture really means. You’re human. I have noticed the intellect and chemistry we have as a class. This could help people understand that life itself has a purpose to who we choose to be.

Man feels overjoyed when finally liberated.
To be free you must fly.
Everyone should have the same rights.
Freedom is a way of life.
I escaped one problem to another.
It’s the time to break free.
There’s nothing better than having wings.

Images we responded to:
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Picture of one of the group tableaus complementing their six word story, which was inspired by one of the images: