Michelle+Berceli

= = = =

media type="custom" key="8784466" =//This Podcast tells a Hang Gliding Story, **The Mark of a Dream Come True**, and recounts the history of the scar running down my right arm.//=

=Well, as we just had to write our teaching philosophies for Writing as Learning, I think I’ll post mine here … gives you a wonderful insight into how I would like to connect with my students.= ==Also, the link takes you to a page about the non-profit school I’m attempting to start in Peru for children of the porters who were part of my teams the two times I’ve climbed the Andes… one of my biggest dreams is to be able to open and run this school – the page explains more, or you can visit the REI site which I will link here next time I have another Inca Trail/Jungle lecture … the lectures talk about the challenge of climbing in one of the largest mountain chains in the world and trekking the Amazon Rain Forest.==

[]
“A bird does not sing because it has an answer. A bird sings because it has a song.” - Chinese Proverb “The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.” -Henry Van Dyke My philosophy of teaching is to encourage every student’s “song.” I believe a solid academic foundation is a strong building block for a student’s life and can help give them the tools needed to release that song. That being said, I do not believe academic success should be the only goal of a child’s life. How do we define academic success anyway: straight A’s? And what exactly does that say the child learned – what the teacher wanted them to! Does that mean the child who failed didn’t learn anything; that they are not able to be successful in life; and are not worth our praise? Wasn’t it Einstein who flunked out of school? I believe it is important to remember that each child is an individual and that they all, every single one of them, have something to offer and have something to learn. I don’t believe creating a classroom of perfectly molded students will help them as individuals or help society as a whole. In this diverse world that we live in, there is room for any number of careers, callings, and people to fill them. Unfortunately, the model we are held against seems to be that we are better teachers if our students sit quietly in class, do as they are told, earn good grades, and score well on standardized testing. But what does that actually tell us about who the student is, what they are learning, or who they will become? Personally, I sat quietly in class, earned good grades, and did fine on my standardized tests, but am now completely miserable working in the career that led me to. I would like to save my students from that fate. I was afraid to break out of the mold, to forge my own path – until now. I finally realized that I don’t need to have all the answers, I just need to sing my song – and that if I stayed quiet my voice would be missing from the Earth. I would like my students to learn that earlier than I did, for I had a few “wasted” years there which I desperately wish I could have back. I believe in public schooling in that every child should have the chance, the opportunity, to learn. Yet I also believe that each child is unique, that academic excellence is not the only kind of excellence, and that encouraging the students in what they excel at may offer them a better future than forcing them to conform within a standardized system. America’s public school system offers all children the privilege and the right to be students and I believe that academic grounding in their early years can propel them for future success, but I don’t believe in a “standard” mold of success. I think the way the country seems to be looking at education now; like a business rather than an opened ended process; is going to be detrimental to our children in the long run. Any country can produce robotic thinkers, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could encourage a whole generation of students to be free thinkers?! Imagine where that could take us – and how much happier students could be if they were encouraged to be themselves instead of confining them to the role of docile, meek student that so many do not fit. I believe it is the teacher’s job to try to dynamically teach the academia needed to survive in today’s modern world as well as to stimulate and encourage the students in their own particular areas of expertise; for behind each unique success is a person who was trained for it – and education is an important first step.