Annelise E.

Blair
San Diego Teaching Residency
High Tech High Graduate School of Education
February 24, 2023

Teaching Philosophy: Holistic Student Development and Co-Constructed Learning

After seven months in the teaching and learning space, it is clear that my life experiences
provide a unique and dynamic approach to my educational philosophy. As an alum of the High Tech High
network, I truly understand the student experience within this school network. As a former public policy
researcher and local, state, and federal government staff member, I have built upon the foundation High
Tech helped me construct. I believe that the teacher’s primary responsibility is to nurture the holistic
development of the students in their care. Educators should guide students to set aspirational, yet
achievable, goals that foster self-motivated learning.
Before curriculum planning or deep learning, it is crucial to establish a strong, thoughtful
classroom culture. Social emotional learning (SEL) drives how I conduct behavior and academic
interventions. I walk with students whenever possible, which I strongly believe takes some pressure off of
these discussions while also removing distractions. Since students must receive support in naming their
emotions and understanding how they affect the space that they are in, I use an emotion and feeling wheel
to help students specifically name their emotions beyond just “happy, bored, tired.” SEL allows an entry
point to establish psychological safety within the classroom, celebrate authenticity, and ensure that
students feel heard. Students must feel psychologically safe in order to learn, and inclusivity is key to this.
This work must be rooted in celebrating students’ authentic selves, and include opportunities for students
to engage in self-work. I often utilize the 2X10 relationship building strategy to uncover what student
behavior is communicating, and we address the underlying dilemma before brainstorming solutions to in-
class behavior.
Students, particularly adolescents, thrive when they understand what is expected of them. To
ensure this, I use co-constructed assessment rubrics, project one pagers, and classroom norms. Students
benefit from understanding how a larger idea or goal can be translated into more granular and actionable
steps. When co-creating classroom norms, I encourage students to think about what behaviors would
communicate meeting or missing expectations. Within this classroom community, I see myself as a
trustworthy facilitator and coach. I reinforce this through classroom activities such as Envision, Coach,
Reflect and dilemma consultancies. Dilemma consultancies, a pillar of High Tech staff development, can
be recreated in the classroom to ensure that students are a part of conflict resolution in a way that feels
authentic.
In my classroom, I invest time upfront getting to know my students, their interests, and prior
projects. My lessons and projects are considerate of the information I’ve uncovered. For example, when I
discovered that my class was extremely interested in current events and the Black Lives Matter
movement, I restructured a unit to include a close read of Representative John Lewis’ final essay and a
deeper dive into historical events he references. This type of responsiveness ensures that students feel
seen and heard, while also increasing academic engagement.
Project-based learning (PBL) provides an incredible vehicle for students to be at the center of
their own learning. I incorporate countless opportunities for student choice and design into my projects,
which ensures deeper learning. These projects and lessons allow students to engage in challenging work
and produce meaningful reflections of learning. I create opportunities for students to find, pressure test,

 and reevaluate the truths that they hold for themselves. In order to push student thinking, I make sure to
incorporate external partnerships to every project I design. This is made easier by having a wealth of
connections from my professional life, but I also draw on my outreach experience to discover new people
and organizations that can bring unique, rich context to student learning.
My curriculum is designed to place the cognitive load on students, with lessons and projects
that I design requiring students to engage in higher order thinking. It is a disservice to students to spoon-
fed knowledge, even coming from a place of wanting to protect or support them. “Watering down”
curriculum only reinforces to the student that they are not equipped to think for themselves, and stifles
their cognitive development compared to their classmates. I approach the Humanities curriculum with the
primary goal of connecting literacy to sociopolitical and historical concepts. Literacy gives individuals the
tools to make the world a better place as well as the ability to critically understand themselves and their
world. While literacy curricula can emphasize reading and writing, active listening is also a critical skill
that must be taught. Students must be encouraged to listen just as much as they speak, listen to
understand, and allow their thoughts and opinions remain fluid as they listen to others’ ideas. The beauty
of literacy is that there is no ceiling –it provides all students, regardless of ability, with lots of kind,
constructive feedback on how to advance their skills.
In terms of explicitly supporting students with disabilities, I proactively communicate with the
student and their support team to ensure the classroom is set to support them. In my classroom, I invest
time with neurodivergent students’ to learn what their “whale” is, and make sure I design opportunities
for these students to share their interests with in the classroom. Students with disabilities bring a truly
special experience and set of talents that will only enhance the classroom community and co-created
learning.
The first step of building any equity and justice-based classroom is to address my own position
of power and privilege. I hold myself accountable to call out my own privileges while simultaneously
ensuring that my curriculum is equitable and representative, which helps me build trust with all of my
students.Students need teachers to acknowledge their own privilege, but also to model what it looks like
to show up and be vulnerable. During a lesson on perspective, I shared with my freshman that I struggled
with an eating disorder as a teenager and early adult. Students shared with me that this discussion helped
them see me as a whole human. As a Humanities teacher, my learning goals emphasize critical
perspectives. These topics and conversations are inclusive, relevant, and allow multiple access points. I
am clear with students that the goal is not to cause distress about difficult history, but to ensure that they
have the knowledge and resources to never repeat history. To this end, I design curricula that highlights
excellence, bravery, and incredible talent of individuals from every racial, gender, and socioeconomic
background.
A teacher’s primary responsibility is to nurture the holistic development of the students in their
care. Educators should guide students to set aspirational, yet achievable, goals that foster self-motivated
learning. I believe that this can be achieved through strong classroom culture, authentic learning goals,
inclusion and differentiation, literacy instruction that connects to social science, and a north star of
expanding students’ sociopolitical consciousness. In ten years, my first students will be approaching their
mid-twenties, and creating a class that emphasizes these areas will lead to adults who are loving, loved,
and hold a firm critical consciousness that drives them to positively impact society.