My philosophy of education is that students are more inclined to learn and obtain knowledge when they are comfortable, heard, and treated like all-around human beings. In my classroom, I will implement concepts from Gholdy Muhammad's five pursuits: identity, skills, intellectualism, criticality, and joy. Middle school can be a difficult time for students due to their bodily changes and influences outside of the classroom. I believe that joy is one of the most important pursuits to implement in the classroom during the students’ adolescence. Students experience multiple changes in a short amount of time during this time of their lives. I aim to produce a culturally relevant and safe environment where students can express themselves while mastering the skills being taught. In education, there is this cycle of making sure students can repeat material and perform well on exams regardless of whether they honestly mastered the content or not. In my classroom, I'd like to change that.

In pursuit of changing the typical order of the classroom, I’ll use Muhammad’s 5 pursuits. As teachers, we are required to teach skills. Skills refer to content and strategies taught in the classroom. The #1 predictor of student achievement is their school connectedness or how connected they are to the school. By integrating pursuits like identity, students can see themselves in the text we read. As students see themselves and can relate to the content, they become more engaged and active in the classroom. When the classroom becomes engaged and active, the joy begins to shine. With joy in the classroom, students start to explore the beauty of literature because they genuinely enjoy it versus doing it for a grade. When students use their love for literature and the ability to see themselves in other aspects of life that they normally wouldn’t, the intellectualism and criticality come naturally. Students begin to demonstrate their accumulation of knowledge in the conversations in the classroom; this is intellectualism. When students use the knowledge gained in the classroom outside of the classroom, they are demonstrating criticality. 

One tip I pulled away to assist me in creating my unit plan(s) is using the backward design. It's important to think about how your students will take this newfound knowledge and use it outside of the classroom. It's also important to consider what you want your students to gain from your lesson. I do not believe that test scores are the best way to know how my students have mastered the content I was assigned to teach. Test scores are so focused on in my district when there are other ways to properly measure student's growth and mastery. When planning and conducting these assessments, it is crucial to consider the whole child and the whole class. Considering the whole child and classroom, you have to keep in mind what their home and social life look like. There are multiple ways to measure and track students' academic growth outside of standardized tests. In my classroom, I plan to explore and incorporate different assessments that are informal and simple. My job as their teacher is to shape my students into the best versions of themselves. Content mastery is important, but teaching them how to be empathetic and authentic is more important to me.