Sandra M. Stokes' Home
Base
aficionado and on most days, I would much rather be flying! You can find information about me, the courses I teach (including course syllabi), and other informative topics by clicking on the navigation links to the left.
During the time that I have taught, I have been influenced by my students and colleagues as well as researchers; as a result, my philosophy of teaching and learning is now one I feel comfortable with.. Those whose work has influenced me are Parker Palmer, Regie Routman, Richard and JoAnne Vacca, Nancie Atwell, Susan Ohanian, and Joan Wink. The Velveteen Rabbit was also influential in helping me to formulate my beliefs.
Some favorite quotes that capture part of what I
believe about teaching and learning are the following:
"The courage to teach is the courage to keep one's heart open in
those very moments when the heart is asked to hold more than it is able so
that teacher and students and subject can be woven intothe fabric of
community that learning, and living, require (Palmer, (1998, p. 11).
"Teaching and learning are a part of real life, and real life includes politics and people. Schools do not exist on some elevated pure plain of pedagogy away from the political perspectives of people" (Wink, 2000, p. 77).
"Cultural pedagogy is a way of thinking about, negotiating, and transforming the relationship among classroom teaching, the production of knowledge, the institutional structures of the school, and the social and material relations of the wider community, society, and nation state" (Wink, 2000, p. 30).
"The curriculum unfolds as my kids and I learn together and as I teach them what I see they need to learn next" (Atwell, 1998, p. 3).