What is your teaching philosophy?

My former students have said that I have high expectations, like to challenge them, am extremely organized, and that I obviously enjoy teaching. I care about my students and try my best to push them to reach the goals we have set together. In teaching writing, I focus on cultivating my students' voices and building their confidence, while emphasizing a scaffolding of structure with which motivated students can experiment. In any subject I teach, I encourage students to examine the underlying assumptions of the given question or topic at hand, the rationale behind their proposed response, and the broader context in which the topic is situated. I tend to ask students a lot of questions in an effort to strengthen their arguments.