Perhaps as a result of the Utilitarianism that infects our education systems, or perhaps it's because teachers are rarely asked… But when the Teach Earth Action team invites  teachers to share their educational philosophy, frequently teachers are at a bit of a loss to articulate it. A common answer is, "I just teach."  

And yet, when given the mental space in a TEA workshop to think about such questions, faculty are so nimble, can think very deeply about this question, and can analogize very well from other intellectual arenas to come to a deeper understanding of their own teaching philosophies and principles. . 

In our workshops we show documentaries about Design, and ask faculty to be on the lookout for Design principles and philosophies being espoused by the designers being interviewed. In the documentary film, Objectified, there is no shortage of Design principles shared. Every designer has some philosophy or set of tenets that guides their choices: 

• My design process is always different. I almost never know. Jason Miller

• Be simple and not simple.  Junggi Sung

• Don't follow trends. Shape the future. Karim Rashid. 

• Influence your design by observing things, details, moments are people's behaviors in everyday life. Andreas Kowalewsk

• Use design as firewood and the ashes as fertilizer in the orchard. Hannu Kahone

• When you play it too safe,  you're taking the biggest risk of your life. Time is the only wealth we are given. Barbara Sher

• Design is where Science and Art break even. Robin Mathew

• A designer is a planner with an aesthetic sense. Bruno Munari

• Good design is obvious. Great design is transparent. Joe Sparano

One exercise the TEA team facilitates in our workshops is to have teachers substitute the word Teaching for the word Design in the quotes above, and then explore and ruminate about how each newly minted philosophy about Teaching speaks to them. 

Similar analogizing can be done with Nature. Teachers are introduced to concepts from the natural world and asked to consider how these concepts might be used to better understand and shape the classroom experience. Concepts like: Rhizome, R/K Selection, Platypus, Unity and Diversity….

The goals of such TEA workshop exercises are:

• Move faculty into a more meta-cognitive space about their teaching

• Invite faculty to be more intentional about their teaching 

• Uncover how the natural world can be a “teacher” to teachers about how to teach