Mr. Cauthorn

    Learning and exploring has brought immeasurable joy to my life.  Expanding my understanding of the world keeps me curious.  Strengthening my curiosity has guided me and provided self-assurance and confidence.  Just as my life experience with playing guitar drove me to be an instructor, my life experience with exploration and discovery has inspired me to become a teacher.  As a teacher, I want to provide evidence of the great satisfaction brought on by self-discovery.  Education is a responsibility that we as humans must take on with vigor through gratitude.  I feel this is true in the community, in the family, in the school, and in the student.  

 

It is my responsibility as a teacher to respect every student and their needs as well as provide a safe learning environment that encourages community, creativity, responsibility, and intellectual empowerment no matter their gender, culture, or personal background.  I want my students to not only embrace diversity, but to learn from it.  I hope to inspire students to recognize learning opportunities with the people they meet and the places they go.    

   

As a teacher I want my classroom to be inspirational.  Students need to first see the fun in learning and that, with the right attitude, they can learn anything.  Learning can come from a variety of different sources and activities.  Although there is a time for sitting and learning through an expository presentation, I want my students to also experience learning through self-discovery, music, and movement.   I believe that exercising the body is as important as exercising the mind and spirit.  It is important for students to develop a sense of community as students should be learning from one another within the classroom. I want students to feel they can express themselves whether it be through art, discussion, or self-exploration.

   

I want to to treat my teaching as a traveler would; find enjoyment in even the smallest miracles, speak as if your words will resonate around the globe, be adaptive to the beauty placed in front of you, and constantly be seeking new knowledge and enlightenment.   Every student, every class, every school is different.  It is imperative that I remain adaptive in order to be as exceptional a teacher as possible.        I look for what my students need to help them learn.  Sometimes students might need more activity; maybe music helps their learning; or drawing, or silence.  As a teacher I am an active observer; always trying to find the specific needs of each student and providing help and guidance to ensure continued growth and strengthened curiosity.  My instruction needs to have positive effect on their learning even when they are not inside the classroom.  I will show students that I will take the responsibility to ensure their best opportunity for learning, and in return I believe I will initiate students ownership of responsibility for their own learning.  

 

I believe that one way to evoke the feeling of responsibility is by student centered learning.  When a person makes a choice to pursue a goal, or live a lifestyle, etc., I feel they inherently take more responsibility for that.  One of the best papers I ever wrote in high-school was an open ended assignment where each student was to pick their own subject, and talk about the history of the given subject.  I have always felt passionate about music, so here was my big chance to share my knowledge.  In that paper, I took more responsibility than I ever had remembered taking, and I feel it was because I made my own choice about what I wanted to study.  I feel that the inclusion of student centered learning is imperative in school as it gives students more sense of responsibility of their own education.  By using approaches like student centered learning, I would be able to be more attentive to more students needs in a class.  Humans need to know that they matter, wherever they are and whoever they're with.  When a student comes to my classroom, I want that student to feel like they deserve the privilege to learn and that they have a voice in their education. I want them to feel safe so that they may speak their mind, and I want them to feel challenged so that they know how to defend their beliefs as well as how to compromise.

 

I believe it is the community’s responsibility to invest in its own future and aspire towards enlightening its youth by prioritizing education.  First off, when I say community I mean both in the macro scale as well as the micro.  Our world is moving and growing faster than ever before, and it will soon be in the hands of our youth.  Children have the right to pursue happiness, and I feel the safest way to ensure that is by giving them all the tools we can in order to aid their pursuit.  Furthermore, it is no secret that past generations have made mistakes that still impact our world, some we continue, many are catastrophic.  Learning from our mistakes is not enough, we must teach what we have learned to right our wrongs in order to achieve a greater level of global harmony.

 

Finally, as a teacher, I would hope to guide the students without presenting myself as an all knowing authority.  I feel that when a student feels a sense of community with the class, they learn the best.  The kind of community that I would like to encourage is one where every person in the class is free to learn and to help each other learn.  I feel that students learn better as part of a discovery team exploring the unknown and making sense of uncharted territory.  Even if the children are able to identify that the teacher probably does know more, the feeling of exploration and reasoning as a team make learning memorable.  By being apart of this team, I am able to get to know the students more, which makes me more likely to cater to the needs of the individual.  

   

As a teacher, I want my students to develop a passion for learning.  I want my students to leave my classroom feeling confident; that confidence stems from being an active member in a learning community - a community of diverse thinkers who feel valid in their ideas and valuable as students with rights and responsibilities.  I want my classroom to be the commencement of students lifelong pursuit of knowledge and mastery so that they experience success and satisfaction in their lives.  I want my students to find empowerment through their learning and involvement with the curriculum and each other.  I will find satisfaction as a teacher when I see my students actively pursuing intellectual growth, practicing empathy and compassion and when I see them embracing diversity and taking responsibility for themselves and the wellbeing of the people around them.