It is my belief that students learn best through experience. My core teaching philosophy is that students learn best through experiential learning. The more they can actually engage in history with critical analysis and attempt to take on the perspective of history's participants the more they will come to understand our past and use that understanding to build new futures.
As a teacher, I believe it is my job to design circumstances which will allow students of varying ability levels, different genders and various socio-economic and religious life experiences to discover the important lessons of history on their own with myself and the rest of the students as their guides.
After 14 years of teaching, I have come to recognize that the more I can teach the skills of inquisitive research, critical thinking and effective communication, the more my students will be armed with effective tools to effectively understand, not just social studies, but any educational challenge that they may be faced with now, or in the future.