I am a firm believer that learning occurs when a practical application can be applied to a recognizable, practical problem and solved using novel , or most recently learned techniques. My experience as an educator for over twenty years has proven that exploratory, interdisciplinary learning which best suits the varied learning styles and abilities of today's classrooms , as well as the intimate socio-emotional needs of learners. My goals are to create environments wherein students are welcome to freely explore and express as well as learn early modalities of gentle emotional self-regulation and expression to promote healthy, respectful personal autonomy which also contributes to an emotionally safe learning environment. I work to create cooperative exploratory learning by engaging students of all levels in Socratic formats from the very beginning to institute types of mutual trust and respect as well as many opportunities as possible to engage in "fearless efforts," regardless of their level of performance. I have found that this is the most accurate way of assessing understanding and promoting inclusiveness, especially in classrooms which include non-native English speaking students. In addition, dynamic lesson planning which incorporates multimedia and varied access points for caribous literacy levels and learning differentiation has been extremely helpful, including but not limited to Audio texts, lm and video lectures. Ultimately, my goal is to make these "extra steps, " normative for all students at all levels in all schools.