HA LE F L ON

(810) 730-3677 | hfulton@umich.edu | 5697 Woodfield Pky, Grand Blanc, MI 48439

Philosophy of Teaching and Learning

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a teacher. Since my childhood, I have seen

teaching as the intersection of two things that have always been important to me: learning and helping

others. While I have grown and learned so much since then, I still believe that those are the essential

elements of being an educator. I believe in a strong commitment to empathy in every aspect of my

teaching practice, a love of learning, and a dedication to self-reflection.

I believe in the importance of a comfortable classroom environment in order for learning to take

place. Learning, and especially learning to communicate in a second language, is a vulnerable process. I

believe in the importance of errors along the way. These provide unique opportunities to reflect upon

where you are in your learning, and your goals for fixing this error in the future. Errors should be

commonplace, because if you re not making errors, you re not learning. But in order for errors to take

place, my students and I must all be comfortable with making them. This can only occur in an empathetic

classroom space, in which everyone knows they are safe and that their ideas, knowledge, and experience

are valued, and all members of the classroom community recognize the dignity and humanity of one

another.

As a Spanish teacher, I will show my students how I value and expect to cultivate a community

and a culture of empathy in our learning space from day one in the classroom. A few years ago, I

encountered a segment of a poem called “In Lak ech” by Luís Valdez: “T e e mi o o o. / You are my

other me. / Si e hago da o a i, / If I do harm to you, / Me hago da o a mi mi mo. / I do harm to myself. /

Si e amo e pe o, / If I love and respect you, / Me amo e pe o o. / I love and respect myself.” Right

away, I knew I wanted this poem to be the foundation in each of my classes for the rest of the year. Upon

reading and discussing this text, we can collaboratively develop classroom norms, bearing in mind our

priority of empathy, to foster a healthy learning environment that works for all students. I believe that

empathy can be at the forefront of everything we learn in my classes, and that this can be fostered in the
target language. I believe that a focus on empathy is also the basis in inspiring my students to think

globally, to identify injustice and pursue social justice, to appreciate diversity, and to collaborate with

others. This commitment to empathy is important as my students gain intercultural understanding when

we learn about the variety of Spanish-speaking cultures, especially through authentic texts. I believe this

foundation will encourage my students to be kind, caring, and understanding people.

I am a committed life-long learner, and will constantly seek learning and improvement

opportunities. When I put myself in the position to be a learner alongside my students, there is an

opportunity to acknowledge and honor all the knowledge and experience they have. I believe the learning

process is dynamic, different for every learner, and involves meaningful engagement with the material. It

is my responsibility as the teacher to help guide students, to advocate for them, to give them the support

they need, to build on their existing knowledge and experience, and to help them make connections

between their learning and the real world. This requires learning and dedicated self-reflection on my part.

I must know my students: I must build relationships with them, learn what motivates them, learn what

they struggle with, ask what they are feeling on a given day, understand how to be the best possible

teacher I can be for them, understand how I can get them to love and respect each other and create lasting

relationships that extend beyond the classroom. I must critically reflect upon my own practice daily to be

the teacher that my students need. I must also model and inspire this behavior for my students to be

critical thinkers and reflective learners.

My philosophy of teaching and learning is based upon my belief in empathy: I believe that my

capacity for empathy is what has led me to the teaching career, and I think empathy can change the world.

I will work hard to put this at the heart of my teaching practice, alongside my commitment to reflection

and lifelong learning. I promise an unwavering commitment to these beliefs and practices for my students.

We will learn and grow together, and we will make the world a better place as a result.