Teachingphilosophy

Mr. Duncan's Statement of Purpose

I am a teacher. My main goal for students is that they __**desire learning**__--desire learning in the present and desire learning for the rest of their lives.

While learning can be many things (exciting, scary, fun, depressing, eye-opening, challenging, empowering), rarely is it not beneficial.

To get students to desire learning, I try to make education fun, challenging, and as relevant as possible.

Mr. Duncan's Top 11
 * I want my students to enjoy, truly enjoy, learning both now and for the rest of their lives.
 * I want my students to become aware of who they are as individuals and who they are in the world around them.
 * I want my students to realize both how big the world is (they are not the center of the universe) and yet how small the world is (how connected people really can be).
 * I want my students to come up with their own questions and then find ways to answer them. (New questions + New solutions)
 * I want my students to be critical of their own answers, effectively evaluating their own and others’ solutions.
 * I want my students to think of learning as something that happens in places far beyond the classroom and textbook by having them experience authentic learning in their communities and across national borders.
 * I want my students to develop the skills that they will most need in the 21st century home, workplace, and society.
 * I want my students to be able to be excellent communicators in both writing and speaking.
 * I want my students to realize how important they can be to others in all settings (one on one, as leaders, as people who do not even know they are affecting others).
 * I want my students to become leaders that first lead by example both in the present and in the future.
 * Finally, I want my students to live the quote by Robert Conklin that says **“It’s not the situation. It’s your reaction to the situation.”** No matter what situation my students may be in, whether fortunate or unfortunate, no matter what caused that situation, whether it be their own doing or the doing of others, I want students to be ready and willing to react to any situation in the best way possible.

If students walk away from my class with these “Top 11” characteristics, I will have done my job well.

// Written March 21, 2010 at the Apple Distinguished Educators conference in Singapore. Edited October 18, 2010. //

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