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I strongly believe in the liberatory mission of the educator, as outlined by thinkers like Paulo Freire. While the book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed is full of quotable passages, one I always return to as a Social Sciences educator, is "the more radical the person is, the more fully he or she enters into reality so that, knowing it better, he or she can transform it. This individual is not afraid to confront, to listen, to see the world unveiled." Exposing humanity for all of its complexities, it's heroism and villainy, can be a painful process. I want to maintain a radically hopeful tone in spite of oftentimes difficult material.

I am especially focused on trying to awaken students to the potential of civic engagement, whether that be through official means or through more informal involvement. The fraught political climate has made many young people "check out" of current events, which is understandable. A conducive classroom environment, as mentioned by Kellough and Kellough, can help to model a safe and pluralistic world. Having practice in participating in a community like this can be valuable training for when the students enter the adult world.

"We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training."- Archilochus

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Despair is hard to avoid when confronted with some of the issues we are dealing with, and that's why it's especially important to find a cause to believe in. Albert Camus, in The Myth of Sisyphus summed up my feelings perfectly, "the struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a [person's] heart." I want to encourage the students to find a cause they believe is worth fighting for, EVEN IF they doubt they will win. Some boulders are worth pushing, regardless of whether they will roll back down the mountain.

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At the beginning of each year, I will make a classroom constitution with each class. The goal of this constitution is to create a set of rules for the class with their consent, something that not only will I hold them to, but they will hold themselves to.

The overall campus rules will still apply on matters of personal safety and restriction against harassment in its many forms, and those will be foundational tenets that will be included in the class constitutions.

Any violations of the class constitution will come with agreed upon consequences, unless they are part of the stated campus-wide rules, which will follow the graduated consequences of the campus. Having a more democratic approach will allow the implementation of consequences over punishments, as highlighted by Kellough and Kellough.

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As a secondary school educator, there is authority that comes from wisdom, maturity and subject matter expertise. Even in the most egalitarian settings, these things would grant a level of authority when they are relevant.

With that being said, I will enter the classroom as an adult with expertise in pedagogy and the social sciences, not as a dictator. An environment of collaboration and the exchange is important to me, along with maintaining mutual respect.

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I want my classroom to be a profoundly warm and inviting space. In my own home, I am an avid gardener, and so depending on whether the room receives natural light, I will try to have several plants around the space. The soundscape is also important, and relaxing music will be played throughout class periods, except for during interactive direct instruction.

The physical setup of the seats will depend on what subject is being taught, though a setup that encourages collaboration will be a major focus. "Four tops" will be a leading example of this, to encourage small group work. Quarterly seat changes will also be important, to encourage a larger sense of community in the classroom.

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My philosophy on grading revolves around the "growth mindset". Improvement and most importantly, active curiousity will be rewarded just as much as the memorization of names and dates. I want to fully internalize my responsibility to ensure that all students are able to learn in my class, as the Brookings reading points out.

This would involve giving very clear expectations, and grading based strictly on those expectations. As mentioned in my classroom management section, I want to create a sense of reciprocal respect and responsibility. This means holding myself to the same standard of effort as I would hold the students to.

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I am an advocate of using a wide variety of technology, while also being cautious of their often addictive natures. Within a given week, the goal will be to have at least one use of reading materials, one handwritten assignment, one typed assignment, one audio/video-based assignment, and one set of direct instruction slides that would require handwritten notes.

An overreliance on any one form of technology both limits the possibilities of learning for different types of students, and also restricts the resilience of the curriculum. No one system will work perfectly at all times, and so using a variety of technologies (including non-digital ones) allows for day-to-day flexibility in fulfilling the scope of the class.

Translation and/or transcription services are immensely useful for language learners and for those with processing issues, and I will encourage their use whenever possible. Similarly, any other accessibility technology will be warmly welcomed into the classroom, and I will commit myself to learning to use them effectively to aid my students.

Unless the campus has other rules, all student cell phones will need to be placed in backpacks before start of class, and the backpacks would need to be stored under the desks.

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"With great power, comes great responsibility" - Uncle Ben

Like many other UC Davis students, my approach to the social sciences is based in critical evaluation and re-evaluation of accepted narratives. While this approach brings with it a high chance of controversy, I will repeatedly echo the above quote. This especially will apply to any criticisms towards the United States and our history.

We are not uniquely good or bad as a nation and worldwide hegemon, but we are absolutely uniquely powerful, and that unique level of power demands a unique level of scrutiny.

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I was raised in a religious sect that highly valued study of scripture from a really young age, and because of this I was very highly literate. The downside is that I essentially burned myself out before I reached middle school. Academic skills were tied to closely to religious faith that any small failure was highly moralized.

I eventually found out that I was profoundly deaf in my left ear, something that generally doesn't affect my life now that I know how to work around it. As a child, it was undiagnosed and I was seen as either inattentive or would fatigue quickly. Once I was able to identify the issue I began the process of working with my own abilities.

My secondary education was mostly a negative experience, both due to sub-par schools and my own educational trauma surrounding my upbringing.

As I got through my 20's, I got more interested in academics and pursuing a higher education.