As a teachers I want to make a difference and have my classroom be a healthy, supportive environment in which students can grow and learn. My students need opportunities to collaborate with each other, as well as with me, to learn and gain expertise about the engineering profession. To be effective engineers in the future, my students must have the opportunity to take responsibility for becoming life-long learners. This means sharing with others what they learn about engineering and realizing all the things that they have not yet discovered. I want my students to become empowered by their own learning and development as future engineers. I create situations where students can take charge for what they learn and how it applies in their academic and professional future.
Finally, I must help each individual appreciate the potential that resides within all of us -- the potential to make the best use of our minds, our hearts, and those behaviors that can make our community a better place. It is impossible for me to be all things to all students. It is healthy for my students to see that I don't have all the answers and that I must deal with contradictions about teaching and life just as they will. To embrace these contradictions and gaps in knowledge creates the opportunity for new understandings and ways of looking at the world.
In summary, I believe that as much as possible my students should be in control and responsible for what they learn. Furthermore, I believe their accepting responsibility for learning does not occur in a vacuum it also involves those with whom they work. I develop a sense of community in my classes. As members of that community, students are responsible not only to themselves, but to the other members of the community, including me.
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