Teaching Statement (Library Science)

Christina Magnifico

Statement of Teaching Philosophy

If you want to build a ship, dont drum up people together to collect
wood and dont assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them
to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
-Antoine de Saint-Exupry

I have been around teachers my entire life. My mother was a teacher, as were many of
my aunts and cousins. All of them were shining examples of what excellence in teaching
is and served as mentors to me throughout my academic career. They are the individuals
who inspired me to continue learning and helped to create the teaching philosophy I
follow today.
When I step into a classroom or auditorium, I strive to engage, excite, challenge,
and inspire my students. I believe that through instruction teachers can instill in their
students more than just the basic objectives of their lesson plans. They canand
shouldserve as mentors, showing students the how rather than the what. This
mentorship empowers students to think independently, but also helps students bond with
teachers and seek out educators as collaborators.
In order to excite and engage students, I first have to find a way to connect with
them. Many students, especially in higher education, can feel like a student number
instead of an individual. My job as a teacher is to inject passion into every subject I teach.
This can be difficult, especially when you are tasked with teaching the same subject
matter repeatedly. One example of engaging students in difficult material comes in the
form of one shot instructional sessions that teach students how to properly utilize
library databases. In preparation for each session, I tailor the content for my audience and

create a presentation that highlights different databases for each specific group. This
customization helps me connect with and engage the students, and shows them that I
want to create content they will find useful. Creating excitement among students is
difficult, but when the tailored content is seen as relevant, students are more apt to be
excited about the lesson. Infusing timely information into instructional sessions pulls the
students in and generates excitement about the content.
During each instructional session, I aim to challenge my students and have them
demonstrate to me that they understand the content presented. I believe that teaching
students using problem-based learning techniques helps them to collaborate with each
other and find answers independently. For me, showing students the process of finding
the correct answer is more important than actually finding the answer to the question.
When teaching students the proper way to perform a literature search, I especially like to
use this method in order to show students how they can apply the searching techniques
they learned during the session to other aspects of research.
One of the last objects of every instructional session is to inspire my students. I
always want to motivate my students to reach beyond themselves, and to be life-long
learners. The key to inspiring studentsI have foundis to give them research and
learning techniques that they can use throughout their lives, not just in the academic
environment. Providing practical knowledge to students inspires them to take that
knowledge into the world and invites them to create innovative collaborations that
positively impact others.
Overall, my teaching philosophy showcases the student learning process, and is
less about the information being provided to the students.