My Professional Philosophy
Teaching is a noble profession. A teacher is someone who has dedicated their life to service and continual commitment to the community and bettering the lives of children and adults. There is a lot of hard work required to become a teacher, and even more to become a good teacher. Teachers must hold themselves accountable for the work they do, and ensure quality in their teaching. Teachers must also be brave, and be willing to stand up for themselves and for their students in the face of adversity and ignorance. As teachers, we must protect the minds of those that step into our classroom, but at the same time we must enhance them and not allow anything to come in between them and the joy of learning.
In order to effectively teach all students, I believe that teachers must have an extensive knowledge base of things that go beyond basic understanding of the material. They must understand concepts that go well beyond what they will be teaching their students, this includes more than just Science and Mathematics. Teachers must understand conceptually, things like Heritage, culture, language, and emotions. We must understand these things on a deeper level in order to better teach our children. We must always have our hearts and minds open to the new and different, and we must be willing to display and model this openness for our children to see and inherit. If we do these things, we will instill a sense of community in our students, and a love of education that will continue to give back time and time again. A child, who loves their community their teachers and their education, will instill these beliefs in their children, and so on and so forth. I believe that teachers are the backbone of an honest and free societies, but only as long as all of us are united in our pursuit of cultural understanding, and community building.
I believe that teachers have a greater responsibility than merely training the young and old in the ways of understanding and open mindedness and community. I believe that training the mind to be critical and to always reflect and act on logic is essential to a child’s growth. Leading children to the answers through inquiry and curiosity will benefit them down the road far more than sitting behind a desk and learning their material by rote. We as teachers must ask the right questions and guide the minds of our students to think more deeply about their subjects, themselves and their education. If a students can come to the conclusion on their own, and they are right, then we have done our jobs as teachers, a student who can do this will continue to stretch their mind and think and reach for possibilities and answers, and hopefully encourage others to do the same.
In my classroom, I will strive to ensure that the nobility of the teaching profession is upheld. I will teach my classroom always with a sense of community in mind, and never allow myself to become lazy or lax in this endeavor. I will push my students towards inquiry and critical thinking, and always challenge the range of their knowledge and skill. I will encourage the pursuit of knowledge outside of the classroom, and I will never deny a student the answers they seek, whether it is directly from me or merely with guidance of where they might better find the answer. My classroom will be a community within my community, and my students will reflect the attitudes of those who should be respected in an honest, open, and free society.