Teaching Philosophy
My approach to teaching is inspired by the teachings and writings of Ella Baker, Septima Clark, Walter Rodney, Malcolm X, James Baldwin and Toni Morrison, bell hooks, and Paulo Freire. These individuals have mentored me through their work on the importance of critical reflection, collective struggle, courage, kindness, and clarity.
As a teacher, my goals are to connect, to collaborate, and to care + challenge.
Connect: I believe the most important part of teaching is building relationships. For students to be taught, they have to trust you. I’m curious about my students and interested in their personal and academic goals, struggles, and interests within and outside the classroom. Through my curiosity, I can implement what I learn from discussions with students in classroom lessons.
Collaboration: I use multiple modes of learning in different combinations of individual, small-group, and large-group work. I design learning spaces to be participatory and project-based—when I’m able to. I believe having students work together encourages them to see one another as learning partners in the classroom community having credible knowledge, thus looking to me less as the main source of knowledge.
Care + Challenge: I approach the learning environment with what Carla Shalaby calls a Curriculum of Care. My approach is to hold very high expectations for students, but also be an encouraging place as they struggle with new and different ways of being and thinking. I want my students to leave the classroom better equipped to critically evaluate the world and their position(s) in it and creatively imagine different ways of being.
Testimonials from students, parents, and colleagues:
Email received from a parent
I just wanted to express my appreciation for kudos to [A] as well as being a mentor, teacher and a friend ( to some degree :)for the middle school kids.We hear stories about your ELA class and those stories are absolutely amazing and heart warming.
7th grade student
Dear Mr. Torrence,
thank you for being such a great teacher. It means a lot to have someone I can view as a teacher and a friend. You emphasize the importance of positivity rather than just academics, which others may not agree with but I do.
Annelysse Lopez (Teacher Assistant)
Mr. Torrence is an excellent instructor who has control of his class, respect and admiration for his kids, and a great attitude toward education. I wish there were more teachers like Mr. Torrence.
Letter received from parents
…[C] had an excellent basketball season this year, so much do to having an excellent coach. Nothing is easy with middle schoolers, and I so appreciate how you stayed competitive while still encouraging hard work and effort. He learned so much, and his desire to keep improving says everything about the culture of the team you created. Thank you for the hard work and lessons taught for the boys.
7th grader
You are a good teacher and you were right about a lot of stuff. Your lectures may have been random but they taught me stuff that will stick with me forever. Also unlike other teachers you were always honest to us and valued our opinions. A lot of other adults think that kids feelings and thoughts don’t matter as much as theirs and act like we should respect them no matter what but you always made it seem like we are equals and valued us.
“If my work is to be functional to the group then it must bear witness and identify danger as well as possible havens from danger; it must identify that which is useful from the past and that which ought to be discarded; It must make it possible to prepare for the present and live it out; and it must do that not by avoiding problems and contradictions but by examining them; it should not even attempt to solve social problems but it should certainly try to clarify them.”
— Toni Morrison