In 2014, my wife and I uprooted our family and moved to the Willamette Valley when a position became available at Yamhill Carlton High School. My goals here were simple, to remain a part of a tight-knit small town, but to grow my professional community ever so slightly as well. YCHS has proven true on both accounts, and has given me more freedom and opportunities than I could have hoped for to expand upon my own experience as well as branch out into new grounds. I'm thankful for the opportunity to be a part of this team, and my singular goal here is that I might contribute in a meaningful way to the future of our community.
As an educator, it is my philosophy that my students are capable of learning far faster than I'm able to teach them. In accordance with this, my students often find themselves in charge of their learning in my class more than they're used to. This may include pushing them to figure out problems we don't have sure answers to, writing their own grading standards, and frequently assessing their own progress towards meeting those goals. Often times they'll find I'm not asking for an answer, I'm asking for a summary of what they were able to figure out. While I recognize this is a change from a traditional classroom, it's one that I've found produces some truly awesome results. When they start to feel like you might not have all of the answers (or won't be giving them), they start to take control of their own education - and that's really the goal of any teacher.
As an educator, it is my philosophy that my students are capable of learning far faster than I'm able to teach them. In accordance with this, my students often find themselves in charge of their learning in my class more than they're used to. This may include pushing them to figure out problems we don't have sure answers to, writing their own grading standards, and frequently assessing their own progress towards meeting those goals. Often times they'll find I'm not asking for an answer, I'm asking for a summary of what they were able to figure out. While I recognize this is a change from a traditional classroom, it's one that I've found produces some truly awesome results. When they start to feel like you might not have all of the answers (or won't be giving them), they start to take control of their own education - and that's really the goal of any teacher.