Desiree Garner

All students can learn. 

 

While educators must understand that not every student will achieve the same heights of success, all students have an opportunity for growth under a skilled and dedicated educator. 

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Instructional staff is the foundation. 

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For students to succeed, administrators and staff must believe that teachers are the most important resource on any campus. Staff development with a focus on consistent, continuous improvement is necessary for teachers and students to excel. A culture of collaboration and sharing of best practices through Professional Learning Communities aids in that foundation.

 

Leadership is the key. 

 

Leaders must understand that the failure of those they lead is most often a failure of leadership. The best leaders are visionaries and must be able to share vision. Our core business is learning and teaching, whether it is Fine Arts, Foreign Language, Math, Language Arts, Science, or Social Studies. Regardless of the subject, an excellent administrator working along side is necessary for the success of both the teacher and the student. 

 

 

I believe in bringing the arts and aesthetic learning to all children. In her writing “Teaching as Possibility," Maxine Greene wrote “I view our times as shadowed by violations and erosions taking place around us: the harm being done to children; the eating away of social support systems; the "savage inequalities" in our schools; the spread

of violence; the intergroup hatreds; the power of media; the undermining of arts in the lives of the young.”

This is what she saw as characteristics of our time. This what we are up against.

 

I believe creative thinking and imagining are the keys, not just to an individual’s lifelong learning, but to the flourishing of a democratic society. I feel students should be taught and encouraged to engage the world as they imagine it should be. Again, looking to Dr. Greene, she saw the arts as a means of encouraging a kind of thinking that best serves humankind.

 

I believe everyone needs to be educated as we are a democracy, beyond just politics and community, that is always in the making. As part of this education, children should be taught and allowed to question without limits. 

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I believe in a humanities curriculum where teachers and students can explore deeply, make meaning out of life, and support student learning across the curriculum. It is through this approach that students can imagine and grow.  

 

My philosophies are a reflection of my belief that education knows no boundaries and that education should be used as a means of exploration, imagination, feeling, and communication. With the constant clash of cultures, countries, and its people, I believe that to imagine a change is the beginning of making the change.

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“Art engenders participation. Participation creates community. Communities can elicit change.”

- Maxine Greene