Pedagogy/Teaching Philosophy

My teaching philosophy places a strong emphasis on the arts - not merely as a subject worth defending and teaching for its own sake - but also as a vehicle to activate and enliven any scholastic subject. I hold a Bachelor’s of Science from New York University’s Program in Educational Theatre, one of the world’s most recognized teacher training programs. Oddly enough, my focus there ended up leading me away from drama classrooms and toward a more expansive use of the arts as a tool for teaching non-arts curricula. I bring my experience in theatre - which began on Mira Costa’s ComedySportz team - to every lesson plan I write, whether it happens to be in an art-focused classroom or not. Inspired by the pedagogies of Dorothy Heathcote, Viola Spolin, Augusto Boal, Keith Johnstone, and others, I have employed this approach to teaching because it is demonstrably one of the most effective ways to reach young people. In my view, the structure of a plant cell is best taught by casting the nucleus as mayor, the chloroplast as farmer, and the Golgi body as postal worker. From Seuss to Cervantes, I believe the words and characters of great literature are most-deeply understood when spoken aloud and dramatized. I see no better way to dissect an event from a history book than to encapsulate learners within it, rendering the characters, culture, and questions of our past into tactile, experiential play. Significant quantities of research demonstrate that this approach produces better outcomes for students.