“Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.”  

 
E.B. White 
 
 

Teaching Wonder 

If I had to distill my teaching philosophy down to a statement or two, I 

would speak about how I believe students construct their meaning from 
the environment and experiences they encounter, how working together 
in collaboration provides opportunities for learning and growth that 
working alone simply cannot provide, how creating a community of 
learners that supports each other with respect and understanding is the 
foundation for a classroom that provides a safe space for all students to 
  learn.  

But if you wanted to really understand my philosophy of 

teaching, you would first need to meet Shirley. Shirley was my very first 
mentor teacher. It was Shirley’s classroom that I was assigned to in my 
early days of learning how to teach, where I was to conduct my field 
experience for an introductory early childhood education class. When I 
met Shirley, I knew nothing about “real” teaching outside of what I had 
read in my textbooks or experienced in my own life as a student.  
For four months, I spent time in Shirley’s classroom, observing 
her interactions with students, absorbing the way she spoke to them, 
attempting to model my own interactions after hers. At the end of my 
time in her classroom, I had distilled my experiences down to one 
central, core concept that I have carried with me to this day, almost 20 
years later: Wonder. As Shirley interacted with the students in her 
classroom, the statement that I most often heard her utter was, “I 
wonder…” When students had questions about phenomenon they had 
experienced in the natural world, she met them with wonder. When 
students noticed colors mixing in novel ways on their canvases, she 
met them wonder. When students noticed the way the sun moved 
across the sky, the way the moon could sometimes be seen during the 
daylight hours, the way dragonflies darted in the air above them as 
they ran through the grass, she met them with wonder.  

Wonder, I believe, is the core of inquiry that fuels 

the fires of discovery. In order to make sense of 
the world around us, in order to create or care, 
we must first wonder. When we wonder, we are 
left open -- to new experiences, to new people, to 
new ideas.  
 Wonder leads us to new discoveries and meanings. 
As a child, I wondered about the world around me. As an adult, I 
continue to do the same. My learning has always been fueled by a 
burning desire to understand more about the things that fascinate 
me, my questions small and large. I believe that this holds true for 
students as well. Students construct their own meanings, challenge 
their own schemas, and grow toward new understandings as they 
interact with curriculum that is founded in their own wonderings. 
Curriculum must integrate learning from many domains and allow 
students to create meaning and represent their understandings in 
many different ways, but it must first be sparked by wonder..  

Wonder helps us understand others and build community. 

It is through interacting with others that we find meaning in 
ourselves, and empathy for those around us. Wonder helps 
us reach out to others with authenticity, and by learning 
about those around us we create community. Students need 
to reach deep inside themselves, identify their strengths as 
human beings, and transfer that recognition to the 
community to truly see the strengths of others. I believe that 
representing each child in the classroom and celebrating 
their diversity and strengths, leads to a classroom 
community of respect and support. If we believe that 
collaboration supports students in their learning endeavors, 
we must first build a community of learners that truly 
respects each other. 

Wonder helps us grow as educators. 

The experiences that I have in my classroom, my interactions 
with students and colleagues, and my growth as an educator 
through continuing education have all led me on paths of 
discovery that have helped me grow as a person and an 
educator. Watching out for the wonder, for the questions that 
arise, has helped me understand where my strengths and 
weaknesses lie, and what directions to take my investigations 
into how to become a better teacher. As an educator, it is 
essential to remain open to new ideas and new ways of thinking 
about the world and the way we teach others. Wonder is the key 
to making this happen.