My tenet for teaching comes not from any mainstream educational gurus, but an improvisational violinist who writes and teaches, Stephen Nachmanovitch. In his book Free Play Nachmanovitch writes, “Planning an agenda of learning without knowing who is going to be there prevents surprises and prevents learning”.  The gem of teaching, according to him, lies not in any particular forms of pedagogy or exquisite agendas, but the real-time connecting among the teacher, students, and knowledge, all as living bodies.

In his article “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff, an English and Education professor at University of Illinois at Chicago notes “we assume that it’s possible to wax intellectual about Plato, Shakespeare, the French Revolution, and nuclear fission, but not about cars, dating, fashion, sports, TV, or video games” — we fail to make connections to the kinds of arguments and cultural references that students grasp. Yes. Why are we giving lectures about Shakespeare when we all know all our students cares about is the Tik-Tok videos they are scrolling down their desks? Why is our lesson planning mostly narcissistic? And why are we instilling in students what WE already know and what WE think is important in ways that WE are familiar with, not ways they are interested in? By doing this, we are losing connections with students, and pushing knowledge away from them. 

That said, I am by no means denying the relevance of our classical and academic masterpiece, quite oppositely, as an English and theatre teacher, it is exactly because I believe in the the everlasting relevance of Shakespeare, Wilde, George Orwell and other great minds alike that I strive to keep them alive in contemporary contexts, connecting them using media that resonate with students.

In my classroom, I utilize music as learning device. In my latest unit, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream in A Mini-Musical”, students were invited to try out multiple music-based activities to enhance and demonstrate their understanding of this classic play. Some students did a “character song”, in which they adapted Helena and Demetrius’ monologues into lyrics with the melody of Love the Way You Lie; some explored and experimented with important literary devices like alliteration and rhyme schemes using rap music in Hamilton. We also dived into the storytelling techniques and structural parallels in dramatic plays and contemporary songs, and it turned out that my students fell in love with using Shakespearian insults and created a rap battle between Taylor Swift and Katy Perry! All I had to do is to show my genuine care to their interests — streaming platforms; musicals; hiphop… to open up and connect with them — to listen to what are important for them, not me; and then, simply create with them.

Being a teacher means to lose your ego, and embody&manifest the most possibly diverse possibilities of how learning happens, and how students grow as individuals. Through music, sports, drama, lectures, whatever. Just because I am a drama teacher does not mean I would always stand by its efficacy. It always depends on who we are interacting with. A teacher’s knowledge of his students must come before his knowledge of the subject.

Plans fail. Plans always fail. Plans are doomed to fail. Plans need to fail. Because for all we know, we know there are students out there with their diverse interests, refreshing beliefs, their unique callings, who will storm in our classroom, shatter our lesson plans, surprise us and enlighten us. It is always an honor and luck to meet these creatures. Because Only in this way teachers learn to learn.

Teaching Philosophy