Teaching Philosophy Sample
There is no other profession wrought of the intense joys, frustrations, and accomplishments of a teacher. As educators and, therefore, continual learners, we take great joy in sharing our wisdom, experience, and passion with our students. The greatest joy is to watch a student succeed through the motivation and love for learning that a teacher has fostered over the years. However, teaching can also be very frustrating. Some students have developed a negative attitude towards school and learning before they walk through the teacher’s door the first day of school. They may not be immediately willing to trust their teachers and they may be resistant towards learning. It is frustrating when a teacher’s efforts are consistently met with opposition, or even worse, no response at all. As teachers, we must keep pushing these students, refusing to give up on any student despite the struggle involved.
Teachers work in a profession based on small and large accomplishments. Unlike other professions, these accomplishments have no real monetary value. The profit is in our students. If even a few students improve their studies and are able to increase their feeling of accomplishment and self worth in my class, then everything I have committed myself to is worth the time and effort. Teaching, then, is also a very satisfying profession.
With these ideas in mind, I believe the call to educate is one of the greatest missions in life and an extremely important vocation. Teaching in the public schools places me directly in the line of shaping lives through education. I want to be an educator because I have a passion for learning and learners. A true learner is not satisfied until he has shared all that he has gained with his students. Teaching, therefore, is a continual, bilateral process of learning and sharing.
Educators are responsible for the intellectual development of each one of their students, and are thus impacting the future of each and every student as well as influencing the future of our world. I truly enjoy working with adolescents and want to help build my students up socially and academically to prepare them for the future.
I believe that all students are capable of creative work, intelligent reasoning, and critical thinking. It is my job to challenge and focus my students, opening up new possibilities to them. I want to create a classroom where all students feel trusted, respected, and empowered, free to challenge ideas and assert opinions. Yet for all students to feel comfortable in this environment, I need to support everyone’s ideas and insist that my students support each other. Growth never occurs without challenge and change, and it rarely occurs without support and encouragement.
I realize that my students’ individual experiences are a large part of who they are and how they learn. Each student is innately unique and I need to be creative and learn how to best work with all of my students. It is my job to help students make a connection with the curriculum and to make the curriculum accessible to many different learning styles. I believe it is important to develop a curriculum where students are continually interacting with each other, trying new things, building connections, sharing ideas, and learning from each other. It is also my responsibility to plan curriculum that is engaging, exciting, and based on my students’ needs and abilities. All students should have the opportunity to be successful. As a teacher, I must work hard to ensure that every student has that opportunity.
I want students to come away from my class feeling as though they have grown and accomplished something meaningful and valuable. I want my students to experience the personal accomplishment and growth that occurs with learning. I hope that when students leave my class, their minds are filled with new concepts and ideas and they are excited about what they have learned. As a teacher, I aspire to constantly challenge my students and I hope that they will catch on to my enthusiasm for writing, literature, Spanish, and learning in general, and develop their own enthusiasm and passion for learning.
Ultimately, my goal is to motivate students towards becoming critical thinkers and lifelong learners. Certainly, I want my students to develop a love for literature and language and learn to utilize their skills in life. As a language and literature teacher, I hope my students will find their own voice and understand language as a means of self-expression. I also want my students to develop good reading and writing skills as well as cultural knowledge and perspective. These are skills that are important for their personal development. My aspirations for them are that they would become responsible citizens who look at many perspectives before making decisions and who can express their feelings, beliefs, and ideas appropriately and make positive contributions to society. I want them to think for themselves and care for others. Teaching is my way of making a contribution that will multiply several times over through the contributions of my students.
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