Philosophy of Teaching Statement, round 1

In an attempt to not be so overwhelmed by rewriting my philosophy of teaching statement, I'm going to blog it here.  The less formal medium and easy feedback option (please give me feedback) helps too.  I need to quit procrastinating this and just write, hence the blog:


My philosophy of teaching has taken a new form since moving to India in July of this year.  Though my conceptualization of learning is rooted still in Paolo Friere's understanding of the flaws of the banking method of education, I now recognize how my approach is akin to what is often deemed the easiest way to learn a second language.  Through various activities and exercises geared towards introducing students to the language and culture of philosophy and the humanities, both  inside and outside the classroom, I believe student best learn critical thinking, reading, writing, and discussion skills though immersion.

Though student's can't move to the world of philosophy as one can move to a new country to better learn its language, I believe students can engage with the class in a variety of ways that provide both formal and casual encounters with the subject, as one does in a new country.  For example, oral presentations, leading discussion, argumentative writing are all formal elements of class that contribute to a student's assessable development.  But weekly, reflective blog posts or tweets allows students a varied learning experience enmeshed with their everyday lives.  


Another means of facilitating philosophical learning in my classroom comes from living Italian philosopher, Giorgio Agamben's redefining of Aristotelian potential.  While Aristotle perpetuated potential and actualization as binaries, Agamben claims potential can exist in tandem with what is actualized, to the point the potential lives on, in a sense, due to and through what is actualized.  In the same way, each student enters the classroom with their classmates and myself, an equal participant, working towards an end goal--an Associates degree, personal enrichment, or acquisition of general requirements.  It is my task in each class to bring awareness to the potential in each student's journey towards their or the class's end goal of critical mindedness.  Yet, the potential does not end when the class is over--this is exactly Agamben's point.  The potential to continue to develop critically will never end.


I have a lot more to add, but I think this is where I call it a night.  Comments and suggestions will be much appreciated!  I'm also a bit distracted by the number of fireworks--happy Diwali!  Indians do fireworks about 5 times better than Americans on the 4th of July.  I'll post Bangkok photos next, promise.

Home

All students in the founding batch have to write papers on home--it's the theme of the Critical Thinking classes.  Between tutoring sessions and reading my own students' papers, I've been overwhelmed with new definitions and conceptions of what this word means for different people.  Yet, I've had little time to engage with it myself, outside of thinking back to my class on living Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben in my undergrad.  He's all about rethinking the political realm with the concept of potentiality--there's a connection to home and working at a university writing centre in its first year there I want to write about.

But, now isn't the time or place to work through my thoughts on his philosophy; however, after a particularly tiring day at work today, I've come to the conclusion I'm pretty homesick.  My culture shock has been a slowly developing dust ball (it doesn't make sense to say snowball here) where I first felt fine and excited to be living in India.  Now that school is nearing our halfway mark, and I've finished reading and commenting on my students' second paper (and also because we had a counselor come and talk to us today about how we need to be writing about our experience), I feel like I need to purge.  

I'm frustrated by the politics and business moves that happen in a university/business' first year.  I can't help but feel like the student's aren't being looked after because of it.  I can't take a walk outside of my guarded society, as I've been warned of the potential dangers of being a white woman in the state of Haryana.  I have to hire a cab to take me to a market where I can buy fresh vegetables and meat.  Don't even ask how complicated it is to buy beer or liquor here.  On election day in this state (which happens to be this Wednesday, and classes are cancelled) we've been warned not to leave the society because politicians running for office give out free alcohol and, as I was just told today, supposedly heroine to entice people to vote for them--I don't want to believe this and am actually skeptical.  Supposedly, the threat of riots is pretty real.  I've lost about half my thickness of hair due to stress, lack of nutrition, and showering in less than potable water.  

I statements pervade the previous paragraph, and I realize how privileged I am regardless of all my complaints, and how important this experience really is.  But for now, I'm unhappy.  I mostly want to teach my own classes again, develop curriculum.  And also, to hug TTHT.  

I am very grateful for my roommates though.  I never thought I'd get along so well with such a bunch of misfits, but I really think I'm sane right now because of them.  I'm also very grateful to get to see my dad in Bangkok on Friday--it can't come soon enough.

Photo Updates and Sports Day

It's been awfully busy at work and my little red camera wasn't holding a charge, but now I've got some free time and the camera made it through.  Here's an update on the construction of the campus, and the first monthly athletics fest we had yesterday.

Here's a view from the Centre for Writing and Communication back about a month ago.  The view looks out on what a now completed sand track, volleyball/badminton and basketball courts, and Faculty housing.

A view from the 3rd floor (which is really the 4th) down onto the courtyard.

Same 3rd floor level, just looking north towards the mess and hostels.

A view of the outside walkway from the Admin Block where the CWC is located to the lecture rooms.

Down in the courtyard.

A westward view of the front of Ashoka.

A north-facing shot of the courtyard so you can see the beautiful lattice work.  The building was originally designed by one firm that wanted all glass--not thinking about how expensive it would be to cool those rooms during most of the year...it's still about 90 degrees in October.  Another firm was brought in to fix this issue and they proposed the lattice.  A third firm was brought in when the second one failed to do anything about building the lattice work.  Needless to say, it makes sense that even with three architectural firms, the campus is still under construction.

We have to take cabs from our apartments to campus and back everyday.  Photo credit goes to the wonderful Nina Sud.

Nina and Lauren in the cab, being their normal selves.

A lot of men bike around, but there aren't that many side roads, just the highway.  It's pretty scary.

 This is Parker Residency where I live.  My apartment is on the 8th floor of Tower 1--the one on the left.

This is the entrance to our society. There's usually a handful of stray dogs that hang out in the driveway.

And here starts photos from Ashoka's Sports day.  We're hanging out, waiting for the football (soccer) game to start.

Alana, Lauren, and Gabe on the sidelines.

Lauren's game face.

Chimi's game hair.

Gabe's spectator face.

My newly coined term, ladies selfie.

 Lauren and Aman.

I got roped into the game because we needed another girl.  I mostly stood around, outside of the times I used my body to stop the football player trying to score.  I fell a lot.

Lauren at halftime.  She's the main reason we won, until we were disqualified. 

Getting the star loose for the second half.

There were lots of weird faces in between games.  I was frankly sun burnt and done but had to stick around for the numbers.

Chimi stretching at the half.  She ran around a bunch towards the ball when I was happily standing near the goal, avoiding the ball.

More of Lauren's game face.

Lauren after she scored the first penalty kick!

I don't remember what this was from, sometime before we were disqualified because we were the staff team with two son's of a staff member.  Supposedly, everyone else was taking the game more seriously than us.

Me scheming how to acquire pizza and beer for the post-game party.  It worked out, but involved hiring a cab and paying the cab driver to buy beer for us.  We live in a state that isn't too interested in making it easy for a late-20s woman to buy herself a drink.

Another good shot of Chimi. 

Our team winning!

Me happy to be done!  I'm not very good at all at soccer.

This is right after Lauren scored the penalty kick that won us the game.

Catching Cori and Chimi laughing.

The happy star player.

Ramya very pleased with Lauren.  We all went back after this to celebrate and watch Bridesmaids which is actually really funny.

That's it for now.  I head to see my dad in Bangkok next Friday and can't wait to see him.  We're all pretty homesick right now, but the semester is keeping us busy enough.  

A special good luck to all the marathoners running in Chicago today.  Have fun and kick butt!