Teaching Philosophy

Natasha Brunton, 2023

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By nature, I am both a learner and an educator. I’m a believer in perpetual personal growth, strength of character, and an expansive understanding of our human condition. I believe that education at its best eradicates ignorance and inspires greatness, offering new solutions, new strategies, and new hope for a vastly unpredictable future.

 

The upcoming generation of students will experience unknown rewards and challenges. Because of this, students must learn to think critically, to procure a natural curiosity, to live and work cooperatively, and to enter the world confidently with the necessary tools to achieve their potentiality. In the classroom, my job is to facilitate learning, encourage inquiry, and extend a student’s existing knowledge. These beliefs are supported by my ventures in vast literature of the world and through the amazing encounters I’ve had with fellow educators and students.

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During the 2020-2021 school year, the nature of our virtual learning platform in Charlotte, where we were locked down for nearly a year, emphasized the invaluable resource of an in-person teacher. Furthermore, this experience cemented my belief that relationships build the foundation for a successful educational program. Nowhere are these relationships more highly valued than within an independent school environment.

 

In an independent school, I was trusted with the responsibility of thoughtfully designing literature curriculum, a process whereby I had to immerse myself in the constant state of reading, listening, and—most importantly—learning. I met with other department members to ensure an aligned scope and sequence, and I engaged with those outside of my department in order to provide opportunities for cross curricular connections. Such a cooperative environment has proven pivotal in my development as an educator.

 

Through literature, I better understand myself and the world around me, and as a teacher of literature, it is most certainly my job to help my students to thoughtfully enter these creative worlds. I instruct my students to search for purpose and evidence in text, to investigate the distinct voices in the world around them, and to develop and value their own authentic voices.

 

I teach those authors who have taught me. Among a multitude of others, these authors include Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Khaled Hosseini, Toni Morrison, and William Shakespeare.

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie emphasizes in her TED Talk entitled “The Danger of the Single Story” that “Many stories matter.” She declares that “stories can be used to empower, and to humanize.”

 

Words matter. Voice matters. What's more important than teaching students to speak earnestly and to listen thoughtfully?

 

Perhaps the most ardent task in teaching is in valuing the individual, the passionate expression of self. Polonius warns Hamlet in Act I, Scene III, “This above all: to thine own self be true.” Guiding students to find their own voices is its own reward. Despite the protest of many students that they simply are not readers or writers–as if these are skills limited to an ordained few– I know that all students are capable and deserving of developing their literary talents, and I’m most at home in an educational environment that encourages one’s sense of self and sense of place.

 

After twelve years in private education, I’ve ventured into public school over the past five years. Here, I’ve also transitioned from teaching grades 9-12 to teaching middle school students in both sixth and eighth grades. If anything, this experience has strengthened my teaching philosophy, as I’ve seen the very young tackle the very complex: Steinbeck’s The Pearl, Bradbury’s Fahrenheit