Philosophy of Teaching for Outside a Classroom
There are many reasons why people are drawn to teaching. The rewards should outweigh the challenges a teacher faces, and effective teachers know how to make that happen. Librarians and archivists are the teachers in their realm, but their challenges in reaching out and working with students are not unique, and the reward of knowing that they influenced a younger generation and gave them a better education remains the same as for any other teacher. A particular challenge faced by all teachers, and one which librarians and archivists are not immune to, is that not all students want to learn the subject being taught. The greatest challenge for me, then, would be instilling the desire to learn what I am there to teach in students, create the buy-in needed for them to feel their time is not wasted with me, and empower them to want to return and learn more.
I believe that all students have the potential to learn, but not all of them start with enough tools to do so. A library offers students the opportunity to achieve equality in education by providing the same access to technology and information to all of them, and it is in this setting that I plan to accomplish my goals. Mentoring students, showing them to not be afraid to look for answers, is a key way in which I could instill a desire to learn more and grow stronger intellectually. I was lucky to always have access to the latest technology while growing up, and I took advantage of what computers offered, playing on them to learn what they could do. As the Internet grew, so too did my vision for access to more information at the touch of a button. I take part in the Greater Philadelphia digital humanities initiative to spread the word on how technology can help connect people to local resources that are quite often inaccessible physically but can be made available virtually.
Being a librarian, an archivist, or someone who works with special collections is the opportunity to be more than a teacher. I see any of these three jobs as a career that allows me to be a part of a diverse group of people who come together to use their collective talents to help others achieve their goals. My diverse background enables me to see the benefits of collaboration for everyone involved. For instance, I felt energized each day when I worked for start-up companies. Being a part of companies like these made me feel as though I was part of a team trying to make someone’s dream become reality. As a legal assistant, I enjoyed working on the cases that made others whole again, helping them move on with their lives after accidents and other setbacks. I believe that working in and being a part of any type of library would put me with people who have different abilities and backgrounds than me, opening me to new experiences. Because libraries are tools for change, and exist for everyone, not an elite few, it would also provide me with the opportunity to enable others to reach their goals and dreams that their social and economic situations might prevent them from achieving otherwise.
Although I am an avid scholar of all things historical, and can speak at length on topics relating to the digital humanities, as a librarian I am prepared and eager to teach classes on research methods for students, especially the part the library, archives, or special collections plays in providing them the resources in which to do their research. Regardless their generation, people know a lot about what interests them, but not necessarily enough on how to find more. For the younger student, the assumption exists, even in their own minds, that they know what is needed to navigate databases and websites to find what they want. Older students and faculty might not be as confident, but could have a misplaced confidence in that the way they are used to performing their research can continue to remain effective in the ever-changing technology atmosphere. My objective would be to empower researchers of all levels to find things in the most efficient and least anxious way possible.
I am passionate about providing others access to information, and teaching others how to find what they need to know. I see how limited access to technology limits people’s access valuable resources, and decreases their ability to learn about the world around them. I also believe access to knowledge increases a person’s self-worth, and while an officer of parent organizations, I led fundraising efforts to make programs available to all students, regardless of their families’ finances, and helped students find alternative ways to do their research and present their findings. I hope that my time in a library will provide me with opportunities to reach out to others who are economically disadvantaged, teach them the skills to do what they need to do, and the knowledge about where and how to find help, should they need it again. I made my academic focus one that would enable me to rectify this so that the digital divide can be minimized. My research into information seeking behavior, and the interface I designed, I think, speaks volumes about my drive to make sources accessible to people.
As a merit badge councilor for a local Boy Scout troop, I researched exciting ways to teach students. Since the material was something they had to learn, and not necessarily what they wanted to learn, I needed to instill the desire to do so to capture their attention. While role-playing to learn important concepts works for younger students, older ones who would visit a library for research require a different type of hands-on learning environment. The teaching methods and strategies employed to meet my lesson objectives naturally would vary based on not just age, but also the comfort level of the student with technology. I heard stories from teachers who attended classes with me about the struggles they faced in their classrooms as they tried to use traditional teaching methods to teach students who did not start life in traditional ways. I learned alongside of these teachers on how to incorporate Web 2.0 tools and other emerging technologies into lesson plans, so that as a teacher I could engage students and lead them to learn.
While interning at a technical research library, I had the opportunity to put some of my ideas for teaching into practice when I provided library instruction to recent college graduates who needed to learn how to get the most from their database searches when performing research. Taking them into a room and using the screen sharing to perform a search their boss could call on them to make was a tool that worked for not only these new researchers, but also the older ones who approached me for refresher lessons. Providing them with brief, easy to follow how-to videos that use screenshots of the databases as a follow-up to the library instruction gave them reference material that could be accessed whenever they needed. I, too, was accessible for questions by chat and email to alleviate any anxiety they might still have about whether they did everything they could to find what they needed for their research.
I want students to walk away feeling as though they spent their time on something that helps them be better learners, which in turn will help them become positive, and positively engaged people, wherever they go. I would determine my success as a teacher when a student of mine sees my enthusiasm for the subject I teach and returns it to me. This is particularly true when a student faces a project and recalls an advanced search method or where to look for a specific website that will provide the answers they seek. It is through that “A-ha!” moment that I know I accomplished what I set out to do. Regardless of when this happens, I would know at that moment that, although many students passed through my door, at least one experienced a higher quality education because I was there and helped make it happen.
I believe that all students have the potential to learn, but not all of them start with enough tools to do so. A library offers students the opportunity to achieve equality in education by providing the same access to technology and information to all of them, and it is in this setting that I plan to accomplish my goals. Mentoring students, showing them to not be afraid to look for answers, is a key way in which I could instill a desire to learn more and grow stronger intellectually. I was lucky to always have access to the latest technology while growing up, and I took advantage of what computers offered, playing on them to learn what they could do. As the Internet grew, so too did my vision for access to more information at the touch of a button. I take part in the Greater Philadelphia digital humanities initiative to spread the word on how technology can help connect people to local resources that are quite often inaccessible physically but can be made available virtually.
Being a librarian, an archivist, or someone who works with special collections is the opportunity to be more than a teacher. I see any of these three jobs as a career that allows me to be a part of a diverse group of people who come together to use their collective talents to help others achieve their goals. My diverse background enables me to see the benefits of collaboration for everyone involved. For instance, I felt energized each day when I worked for start-up companies. Being a part of companies like these made me feel as though I was part of a team trying to make someone’s dream become reality. As a legal assistant, I enjoyed working on the cases that made others whole again, helping them move on with their lives after accidents and other setbacks. I believe that working in and being a part of any type of library would put me with people who have different abilities and backgrounds than me, opening me to new experiences. Because libraries are tools for change, and exist for everyone, not an elite few, it would also provide me with the opportunity to enable others to reach their goals and dreams that their social and economic situations might prevent them from achieving otherwise.
Although I am an avid scholar of all things historical, and can speak at length on topics relating to the digital humanities, as a librarian I am prepared and eager to teach classes on research methods for students, especially the part the library, archives, or special collections plays in providing them the resources in which to do their research. Regardless their generation, people know a lot about what interests them, but not necessarily enough on how to find more. For the younger student, the assumption exists, even in their own minds, that they know what is needed to navigate databases and websites to find what they want. Older students and faculty might not be as confident, but could have a misplaced confidence in that the way they are used to performing their research can continue to remain effective in the ever-changing technology atmosphere. My objective would be to empower researchers of all levels to find things in the most efficient and least anxious way possible.
I am passionate about providing others access to information, and teaching others how to find what they need to know. I see how limited access to technology limits people’s access valuable resources, and decreases their ability to learn about the world around them. I also believe access to knowledge increases a person’s self-worth, and while an officer of parent organizations, I led fundraising efforts to make programs available to all students, regardless of their families’ finances, and helped students find alternative ways to do their research and present their findings. I hope that my time in a library will provide me with opportunities to reach out to others who are economically disadvantaged, teach them the skills to do what they need to do, and the knowledge about where and how to find help, should they need it again. I made my academic focus one that would enable me to rectify this so that the digital divide can be minimized. My research into information seeking behavior, and the interface I designed, I think, speaks volumes about my drive to make sources accessible to people.
As a merit badge councilor for a local Boy Scout troop, I researched exciting ways to teach students. Since the material was something they had to learn, and not necessarily what they wanted to learn, I needed to instill the desire to do so to capture their attention. While role-playing to learn important concepts works for younger students, older ones who would visit a library for research require a different type of hands-on learning environment. The teaching methods and strategies employed to meet my lesson objectives naturally would vary based on not just age, but also the comfort level of the student with technology. I heard stories from teachers who attended classes with me about the struggles they faced in their classrooms as they tried to use traditional teaching methods to teach students who did not start life in traditional ways. I learned alongside of these teachers on how to incorporate Web 2.0 tools and other emerging technologies into lesson plans, so that as a teacher I could engage students and lead them to learn.
While interning at a technical research library, I had the opportunity to put some of my ideas for teaching into practice when I provided library instruction to recent college graduates who needed to learn how to get the most from their database searches when performing research. Taking them into a room and using the screen sharing to perform a search their boss could call on them to make was a tool that worked for not only these new researchers, but also the older ones who approached me for refresher lessons. Providing them with brief, easy to follow how-to videos that use screenshots of the databases as a follow-up to the library instruction gave them reference material that could be accessed whenever they needed. I, too, was accessible for questions by chat and email to alleviate any anxiety they might still have about whether they did everything they could to find what they needed for their research.
I want students to walk away feeling as though they spent their time on something that helps them be better learners, which in turn will help them become positive, and positively engaged people, wherever they go. I would determine my success as a teacher when a student of mine sees my enthusiasm for the subject I teach and returns it to me. This is particularly true when a student faces a project and recalls an advanced search method or where to look for a specific website that will provide the answers they seek. It is through that “A-ha!” moment that I know I accomplished what I set out to do. Regardless of when this happens, I would know at that moment that, although many students passed through my door, at least one experienced a higher quality education because I was there and helped make it happen.