My teaching approach, and view as a learner-in-progress, is the sum of the collection of what I chose to adapt in my practice as a teacher. As I grow in the field of teaching and collect experiences, excerpts, ideals, theories, strategies and the like, a need to have a way to catalog all these--whether mentally or physically, has led me to binders upon binders, bookshelves and cabinets that hold all these "treasures" that helped form my identity as a person committed to the education of all learners.
I chose the theme of cabinets to reference the growing wealth of knowledge within me as I continue to study education and explore ways to improve myself as a teacher, learner, and teacher inquirer. I have always been fascinated with cabinets both as a decorative and functional piece of furniture. By the organization found within can one somehow gauge the personality (or the "OCD-ness) of its owner! I have a strong penchant on keeping things organized so what better way to help you know me and my thought process than to use cabinets and the symbolism I have attached to each chosen piece.
Cabinets are receptacle of things we have acquired throughout the years. It holds what we use everyday or displays the things we treasure but rarely use. In like terms, the skills and knowledge we have come to learn in the years we have committed in educating students needs a place for keeping them within our reach anytime we feel the need to use it, reference it, re-read it, change or improve on it. The same holds true with the kinds of cabinets we eventually keep. Some cabinets we keep for the time being, serving its functional purpose in that point in time, then we give it away to others who might be able to use it temporarily til they find that which defines them. Other cabinets we hold on, even if it does not represent our distinct style, because they are heirloom passed on to us by our families to which we will always be identified with. And then there are others that no matter how old and antiquated they have become will always be the expensive piece that everyone would like to have no matter the price because they are the forefathers of all cabinets. Think of it as the "Dewey" cabinet which will always be a central piece in any cabinet conversation!
It is my hope that this multigenre project will help enlighten the visitors of this website of my growth and development in the field of education. My journey enclosed in each page, found within the annals of each "cabinet", will seek to answer why I chose to teach, why as a learner I must continue to be, and a teacher inquirer I must strive to become each day.
