As it occurred to me while standing in front of my first classes years ago of the kind of impact I have as a teacher, it made me realize that we must choose our words wisely. Also when that first student comes up to me and says, “I’m thinking about changing my major or minor in college, because of what I’ve learned in your class”; it makes me also realize that students are really paying attention. My wife once told me, “Don’t think about impacting student’s lives, just know you are”. As a passionate educator that wants to stir student’s imagination, creativity, and instill a desire for communications and storytelling through Media Arts, I want a student to have a value-added experience at Media Arts Academy. Each student should be able to come away with a sense of knowledge and appreciation for the subject taught and an understanding of the basic concepts presented. My approach and philosophy to teaching is an IOU approach, which is INTRODUCTION, OVERVIEW, and UNDERSTANDING. As the teacher, I understand what students need at this stage of their education, and the IOU method meets that need to provide a solid foundation to prepare them for high school, college, and beyond. Any house that is built on solid ground will stand the test of time.
The objective in our online classroom and community is engagement and participation. Each course is set up with a video to explain the concepts, an essay to assess the knowledge of the student before the assignment as well as a post-assignment essay to gauge what they learned from the practical assignment. Also, a final quiz emphasizes the concepts of each building block of the storytelling process. When it comes to the assessment process, it is mostly subjective with the emphasis on the knowledge of concepts. It is up to the student’s ability to communicate clearly that they understand communications and storytelling.
Being able to teach courses in a subject area I have had a professional career in for more than 35 years has made me appreciate what I am instilling in students and giving them real-world experiences. I also realize that my courses have different names than the life’s lessons that are taught like teamwork, discipline, accountability, responsibility, deadlines, and many more. It is a lot different than the cycle of the teacher teaching and the student learning. As a teacher, the learning process never stops. In an ever-changing world, different ways of relating to students, subjects, and communicating are always evolving and need to be kept up with.
As I move into my first year with confidence and success in reaching my goals of building culture and community worldwide, and excitement for Media Arts Academy, I look forward to providing tangible results that will be a competitive advantage for MAA in retaining students and drawing new ones to our Academy.