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“If you can dream it, you can do it.”

Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald

                                    

I am a dreamer but most importantly, I choose to inspire dreams in others. The quote by Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald has followed me throughout my life. Throughout my academic and professional career thus far, I have had the opportunity to meet with other ‘dreamers’ and learn from them. While there have been times where I felt stuck because of a lack of motivation, I have kept on dreaming and passing my knowledge on to others.

 

The filmmaking and media studies fields are both fulfilling and tumultuous. A lot of people believe that film school is not necessary to dive into these fields. Nonetheless, as a fan of education, I decided to head to graduate school for filmmaking while working in the field. It is there I met faculty members who would shape the way I saw the filmmaking world. These same faculty members would encourage me to follow my dreams while teaching me how. I embraced their motivating nature and it set me on the path I am today where I choose to value real world experiences andeducation. 

 

Through my teaching, I choose to follow a similar route as my own professors by fostering growth through encouragement and hands on experience. I believe students learn more in an environment that they feel comfortable in. Additionally, a classroom with a teacher who is confident in their craft is important in instilling self-confidence in the students. I plan to express this with my teaching by allowing the students to inquire about my own filmmaking experiences as it is imperative in this field of study. To assist in completing this, I incorporate my own industry success and failure stories to show them the reality behind the scenes. My goal is for my students to value the education they receive in addition to any real-world experience. Therefore, I mix the two of these in as many instances as I can. For example, my students in a video production class were required to write their own short film script and produce a final video. In order to incorporate a real world experience they might have after graduating, I recruited three of my peers and we held pitch meetings for each group to learn how to verbalize their story ideas. Similarly, I try to use my own work for examples whenever I can. For example, in a storytelling or editing class, I might give my students some of my documentary footage and ask them to craft a specific scene. Following the presentation of each group’s scene, I can show them how it was actually done. Additionally, they are able to see how stories can be told in a multitude of ways. 

 

Each semester, my way of teaching is slightly different, even if the course is not a new prep. I am cognizant that everyone learns at a different pace and comes from a different background. I work with each group of students and learn about their interests and experiences so I can tailor my lectures to them. This allows them to imagine how they fit into the industry instead of feeling like they are confined to a one-size-fits-all mentality. Part of my teaching philosophy is to instill confidence in my students that will make them proud of their work. I am very open with my students that I want them to succeed and offer individualized help when I can – even for comments on non-class projects.