Teaching Philosophy
I believe in leading by example and living with integrity. I also maintain that a teacher must be upright, honest, incorruptible, and faithful in fulfilling his responsibilities. If you do not lead by example you are setting double standards that the students will not follow.
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If a teacher leads by example, the students will follow without being prompted to. This is a very valuable lesson to students and is something I learned from youth in my family.
With diversity being a major part in our education system, I believe teachers need to be respectful to all students, without prejudice of race, religious beliefs, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical characteristics, age, ancestry or place of origin.
I believe that working with children requires an exceptional level of patience. A teacher must know that the students are still young, and as children they can be high energy at times. It does not serve anyone to show temper or impatience. Being patient is one of my strongest assets as a teacher, and is one of the reasons why I think I would be very suited to work with elementary grade students.
A teacher must also show empathy for students and show the same concern and understanding to everyone around them, including fellow teachers. Throughout my practicum experience I have learned that the strongest resource a teacher has is the valuable resource of their fellow teachers’ support. It is a very strenuous job and often colleagues rely on each other for support. This is a very valuable lesson I have learned this semester.
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In every class, I try to embrace every students inner genius and support their successes in everything they do. Every child can succeed, and I think that every child should be provided the opportunity to succeed at the level that they are independently at. This is key to a successful classroom, as well as what drives my motivation for differentiation. No child wants to feel that they are a failure.
I believe a good teacher must be organized and well prepared. I work very hard on my lesson plans, from creating a sense of inclusion and diversity in my lessons to researching a topic I am unfamiliar with. I feel that my best lessons are the ones for which I know my topic, and am passionate about. Those lessons get the information across to the students the best. Organization also spreads to the efficacy of other substitute teachers, in case they have to cover my lessons. I have only experienced this a few times, but each time substitutes are thankful for the organized lesson plans. Those lessons can be reused in later years as well, so if you are fortunate enough to teach the same lesson the next year you get a chance to improve it again.
