My Teaching Philosophy
“Every child needs a champion; an adult who will never give up on them.”
For me, teaching goes beyond getting content across to students. I see teaching as a great opportunity to be an agent of positive change and a role model for children. I believe I can be someone who will be fully present for my students, someone who can show them how being kind to one another looks like, sounds like, and feels like. I want to use my position as a teacher to inspire and encourage my students to always do their best and to believe in themselves. I believe I can accomplish all of these while helping children obtain the academic knowledge they will need to succeed in the future.
I strongly believe that children deserve to get a quality education, just as much as they deserve to be treated with love, kindness and respect, above all. I believe that students need to feel safe, loved, appreciated and respected by their teacher—and their classmates—in order to be ready and open to learn. What we say and how we treat others is powerful and it matters. Building meaningful relationships and genuinely connecting with my students is a priority to me and I vow to make every effort to get to know my students as individuals.
An ideal classroom for me has high expectations along with appropriate supports and scaffolds for all students. In my classroom, diversity is welcomed and appreciated as well as all languages and forms of expression. I want to create a classroom learning environment where my students and I work hard, yet we also have fun while doing it. In my ideal classroom, we sing together, we use our bodies to learn, we communicate in English and Spanish, and we learn from each other.
I believe in the power of inquiry and of teaching across content areas. I believe in restorative practice, fostering a sense of community involvement in children, and teaching them to care for our environment. I am dedicated to helping my future students grow emotionally, intellectually, socially and technologically to prepare them for the evolving demands that being a responsible, self-reliant, and confident global citizen entail.
Last, but not least, I believe in parent and family involvement. I believe parents and family members are equally important and part of the success criteria that will support students in succeeding both academically and socially. I want to have open communication with my students’ family members, and I want them to know that I, too, have their student’s best interest at heart.
I know that there is a long way ahead of me and many opportunities for growth; however, I also know that I possess the biggest strength a teacher could have, and that is willingness to learn. In Paulo Freire’s words, “... a teacher is a professional, one who must constantly seek to improve and to develop certain qualities or virtues, which are not received but must be created … we have to learn and relearn again and again.”
I can say with conviction that I want to become the best teacher that I can be for my future students and I will work hard in order to achieve it.
