Teaching Philosophy Statement - Sudo sensei
“ People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel” – Maya Angelou
The core to my teaching philosophy is heart. I care about each of my students and want them to become the best version of themselves emotionally and academically. As a teacher I strive to make that connection with their heart. If I can unlock that and trust is established, it opens the door to so many possibilities. Students will feel safe in my classroom to be themselves and celebrate inevitable failures as they learn new concepts. Students will feel excitement and be intrinsically motivated to learn when they work on open-ended assignments that allow them to pursue a subject-area that ignites their passions. Students will feel pride when they discover they can take a core concept taught in class and apply it to create something original.
When students enter my classroom, they will get to know a teacher who isn’t afraid to be himself and celebrates failure by modeling it. He will ask them to address him as Sudo sensei to celebrate his Japanese heritage and will play Ukulele from time to time even though his singing is terrible. He will have a vested interest in their academic progress throughout the course, but will also ask them about their pet peeves, weirdest food they have ever eaten, etc. because he genuinely wants to get to know them.
“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think” (Einstein, 1879 - 1955)
We do an injustice to our students if we ask them to memorize facts and regurgitate them back to us. Frankly, that is what the internet is for, and it does it better than any human can. While there may be a place for fact memorization, I do not believe it is learning. Learning happens when we get the student to think critically. Learning happens when we teach the student a concept and he/she/they can think and apply it in a different context, or better yet extend it (e.g., If 1+1=2, what is 1+3? What is the quickest way to solve 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9?) When a student thinks critically, he/she/they is forced to internalize the concept and merge it into their existing understanding of the world.
My students will learn how to think critically by using the Stanford d-school Design Thinking Process to turn their ideas into a product that solves real-world problems. Through my 18-year career at Microsoft this is one of the most effective methodologies I’ve seen applied in the industry. I want my students to learn this process, so they too can turn their ideas into a working solution. Major project assignments in my classes are project-based and will guide students through the 5 phases of the Design Thinking Process: (1) empathize, (2) define, (3) ideate, (4) prototype, and (5) test, to build a final culminating product.
End of trimester course evaluation questions
I will ask my students to evaluate me on how well I am practicing my teaching philosophy
| Philosophy | Student question |
|---|---|
| I want my students to feel that I care about them | On a scale of (1-5, 1 being low and 5 being high) how accessible was Sudo sensei to you? Did you feel supported in the class? |
| I want my students to feel safe in my class | Has Sudo sensei taken steps to create a safe classroom environment in which you feel you belong and can learn? If so, how? If not, how can he improve? |
| I want my students to understand that learning is a journey. It’s ok to fail if you are learning. | Think about a mistake (large or small) you made in this class. What was it, how did it make you feel, and how did you handle it? |
| I want my students to learn to think and apply concepts they learned in class in a new creative and novel way | Were you able to take a concept demo taught in this class, and use it to solve a new, different problem (e.g., mid-term or final project)? If so, please give 1-2 specific examples. If not, can you share why you weren’t able to? |
| I want to tap into the interests and passions of students to drive their motivation | Did you have opportunities to bring in or learn more about an area of personal interest into the class assignments? If so, which area of interests and which assignments? If not, can you share why you weren’t able to? |
| I want my students to have a good understanding of the Design Thinking process and know how to use it in their future. | What is the Design Thinking Process? How might you use it to build something in the future? |