Relevance

I have recently completed writing my official Teaching Philosophy paper for one of my final College of Ed classes and have discovered that my whole philosophy revolves around the concept of relevance. Relevant skills. Relevant knowledge. Relevant tasks.

With the Arab Spring, the unit I am teaching my seventh graders now, relevance is easy. It is a world-changing event taking place on the other side of the globe as we speak, but making it relatable is more of a challenge.

Oddly enough, it was easier to make our study of Mesopotamia relatable because my focus of the unit was on the similarities and differences between the social structures of today and ancient times. Relevance was challenging, however, with this topic.

Relevance and relatability should go hand in hand, I think. Students should be able to relate to what is relevant to their lives. To hold true to my own teaching philosophy, I should strive for both, and hopefully my students now and far in the future will benefit from the effort.