My Teaching Philosophy [As of right now]

To teach.  Although it may seem like a simple task, its roots run deep and opinions on its definition and importance are expansive.  Goethe once said, "Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them become what they are capable of becoming."  In an essence, this is what my teaching philosophy is.  I look at teaching as a skill that takes practice, something that requires love, patience, and believing, and something that is quite honestly, not easy to do.

            My childhood was filled with days of setting up pretend classrooms, dragging my poor sister and her little friends into it to be my pupils, grading pretend homework with the ‘Good Job!’ stickers my Mom gave me from her school supplies, and taking recesses to the backyard.  The love of teaching I have developed began many years ago, and it has continued to grow as I’ve gotten older.  Being a member of the Church, I was given many opportunities to teach in the Young Women and Relief Society programs as well, once the plastic chairs and tables in my basement classroom got a bit too small.  I think it was at church where I really noticed the difference a teacher could have on his or her students.  The classroom is a place where you can light a fire within a student and let them continue to let their flame grow.  All you really have to do is believe in them and give them a little push in the right direction.

My quest to becoming a teacher for real began about a year and a half ago, and over that time I’ve started thinking about the reasons as to why I am doing this.  Why would I want to become a teacher when the pay isn’t always great and the recognition not always there?  That is simple.  I am becoming a teacher because I am confident that through it I can make a difference.  I am becoming a teacher because I love being in front of people and showing them something new.  I am becoming a teacher because I’ve seen a teacher take a struggling teenager, make them feel on top of the world, and help them find that little something they are searching for within themselves.  I am becoming a teacher because I want to do the same.

In my future classroom there will be rules, but it will be student run-- in the sense that the students will get out of it what they want to get out of it.  It will be a place filled with neat posters, fun colors, and new technology popping up daily.  The students will help pick the projects worked on, and they will grow together as a class as they work on different things as a team.  I will be an equal to the students, but also the expert in the room.  I will be one of those teachers constantly working on ways to become better, and always innovating in my classroom management and lesson plans.  I’m going to be a fun teacher, one who respects the students, and one who helps them see their potential and how they individually can contribute to the world.