Design Forward
An emergent exploration of critical instructional design.
Design Forward
Portfolio Part: The day I realized we are all teachers
Your Teaching Origins
The day I realized we are all teachers
Step One
In the boxes below, Name those things/people/experiences that have shaped your approach to teaching. Describe their Influence. Add as many as you would like.
In the Rank column, try to rank your influences (as best as you can), where the lowest number means the greatest amount of influence.
| Name | Influence | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Patrick Cate | Supervisor of Student Success Coaches who embodied “advising is teaching” and trained the new to PSU Success Coaches how to take on the role of teacher with our students. | 6 |
| Terri Dautcher | Terri has been my unofficial mentor since graduating college. She was my first call when I began teaching FYS now TWP. She prompted me to do more with less and to channel my own learning experiences to draw the connection of how we feel about learning. | 3 |
| Brene Brown | I listen to her podcasts daily and she has this way of inviting you into the learner space which I feel really transcends my teaching ability. When I stay humbly curious and open to new ideas I find I am a much better facilitator of knowledge. | 1 |
| Janet Lansbury | The unruffled podcasts are geared more towards parenting though the key principles of sitting with others in their process, of acknowledging process over product, and the sheer POWER of our language can shape the relationships we have. She was the first individual who helped me see that as a mom I am a leader, a teacher, within my own house. And with the teacher mentality you approach discipline and all situations from a very different vantage point. | 2 |
| Maria Sanders | Maria was one of the earlier influencers in my teacher career who taught me about how to organize the gates in course that encourage intrinsic motivation as you help students build up their work in phases. She helped me connect assignments to learning outcomes, objectives, and built in incentives to do work in sequence. | 5 |
| Martha Burtis | Martha infused inspiration and excitement into my teaching! Her brilliant mind and calm demeanor just invites the most powerful conversations where you are inspired to evo | 4 |
Step Two
Choose three influences you identified and write three paragraphs about the impact they had on your teaching.
Paragraph 1: Identify specific ways in which these influences can be seen in your teaching.
Paragraph 2: Discuss whether you feel like that overall impact has been positive or negative.
Paragraph 3: Imagine your future teaching self and write how you would like to further integrate or eliminate these influences.
Choose 3 influences you identified: Brene Brown, Janet Lansbury and Terri Dautcher
You can see elements of Brene Brown in my teaching through the way I show up vulnerably with my students! Boundaried yes, but vulnerably. Her work around emotion literacy and courage has shaped how I practice ungrading conversations with students in my TWP course at the 6 week and final week mark. For example, a conversation with a high achieving student who shares frustrations about group work could look like, “what are ways your own actions might empower others around you to participate?” or “have you noticed that you take on the bulk of group projects in other courses as well? If you stay curious about that, what comes to mind?” Janet Lansbury parenting unruffled work shows up in my teaching in the classroom but also in life. It’s through her work that I can see beyond an immediate behavior of emotionally offloading and instead stay curious myself as to what the true cause of that might be. To say it bluntly, a student not doing X,Y or Z is more about them and likely has little to do with myself. She’s helped me work on my presence and how to not let things unruffle me which used to happen often! Terri can be seen in the way I reflect and process about my courses. I used to call her often but I sometimes feel like I can channel her voice in a moment of process and root around for my pathway forward. She’s the first to prompt me to think of the stories I am telling myself vs what reality may be, she helps me ask a lot of questions and empathize as a way of grounding.
The overall impact of these three individuals has been overwhelmingly positive but also, truthfully, exhausting at times. When you never stop growing and are insatiably curious it can mean I stay really cerebral about process and sometimes forget to channel heart. I think this lack of channeling heart and excitement can also lead to quicker burnout or lack of interest. During the global pandemic the last thing I wanted to do was improve on myself and how I show up in all areas but in the end, that ever evolving work is what shapes the future us. It’s overwhelmingly positive but can be tiring.
The future teaching Kayla would infuse more fun in the work of teaching in life, work, and the classroom! I hope to embody Terri’s ability to play and create alongside students. To stay vulnerable and rumble alongside family, friends, colleagues, and students as Brene teaches. I also hope to continue my work in holding presence, power, and connection while unruffled as Janet Lansbury has taught. What I hope to not do, is take on so many improvements that the path forward feels unsustainable.
