This is a depiction of Diogenes the Cynic, a philosopher best known for living in a barrel, heckling Plato, and generally refusing to play along with society. I wouldn’t say Diogenes shaped my philosophy of teaching so much as reassured me that maybe being a bit contrarian wasn’t a disqualifier for participating in group discourse. He believed true happiness came from living in line with nature and reason, not social norms or status games. Personally, I find his lifestyle a little too extreme & minimalist, but some of his ideas are surprisingly relevant to our work here in the Writers’ Studio.
My Teaching Philosophy
I came into this role with the understanding that writing is more than a skill, it’s an extension of self-determination. I Learnt that writing centers should be spaces where students can clarify their thoughts, challenge assumptions (including their own), and develop a relationship with writing that serves them beyond the classroom.
Throughout my writing internship, I’ve been influenced by scholars such as Valerie Balestar for instance, who helped me rethink my understanding of education, writing rubrics and hegemony.
The relationship a writer has with writing can be the single most important determinant of a writer’s well being if not success.
My Writing Mentor Mission Statement
In this video essay, I outline my personal mission as a Writing Mentor at Arizona State University (ASU). In this video, I reflect a lot on my own experiences and past struggles with identity and feedback and share how I’ve grown as a mentor
Student Engagement
As a writing mentor, I’ve facilitated student writing and success through personalized feedback, Multimodal announcement videos, through the creation of student resources, answering questions on both the inscribe community and via email and I even host synchronous workshops where I provided one-on-one feedback once per term. Click the link below to see some of my artifacts of student engagement!
