My Teaching Philosophy

The following is a list of beliefs I hold about teaching and children that guide my practice everyday.

​

• Our first responsibility as teachers is the care of our students. We must make sure their hearts, souls, minds, and bodies are cared for before they can learn anything from us. Did they have enough to eat? Did they sleep well in a safe place last night? Are accommodations being met? Are they okay?

​

• Teachers must take care of themselves before they can take care of anyone else. They must look after their own hearts, souls, minds and bodies to effectively care for and teach others. Are they sleeping and eating well? Is there a healthy work/life balance? 

​

• “Take Chances, make mistakes, get messy!” - Mrs. Frizzle, The Magic School Bus. The classroom must be a place where it is safe for children to be risk takers, get the answer wrong, and get hands on. Children do their best learning when they trust their teacher and feel safe and free of judgement in the classroom.

​

• You’ll never know if you don’t try. This is something I say to students often and I believe it applies to teaching as well. A good teacher is one who is always willing to try something new to meet the needs of their students and avoids getting stuck in doing things “the easy way.”

​

• Classroom Community > Classroom Management. A classroom community works together to set its rules and solve problems within it. A classroom community takes care of its members. Classroom community members all do their part to keep the community space clean and the day running smoothly. By making the classroom a community of engaged members, children learn to become active and productive members of their communities later in life.

​

• Teachers should have and explicitly teach growth mindset. Having a deficit lens in teaching teaches our students to view their mistakes as failures and character flaws. Instead of saying “I can’t do this” we say, “I’m still practicing this skill!”

​

• We can not expect children to be naturally good at sitting still, being quiet, and keeping their space and belongings tidy and organized. Giving students the time and space to move their bodies, use their voices to share their thoughts and opinions, and get messy, gets them engaged in learning and reduces “behavior problems” for kids who have an especially hard time with those common expectations. It also gives us an authentic connection to explicitly teach how to control our bodies, how to wait for our turn to share, and how to re-organize our space and belongings after work time.

​

• Diversity should be not only shown but celebrated in the classroom. Children should be exposed to the perspectives of and literature that shows different races, abilities, types of families, genders, cultures, religions, and other minority groups. This is especially true for groups of students who are not very diverse themselves because they have less authentic exposure to it in their everyday lives.

​

• Children are people and they are deserving of respect, kindness, and love. We must respect their identities, ideas, beliefs, values, and cultures even when they are unfamiliar. We must also ensure that all students are treating their fellow students with respect, kindness and love even when they have conflicting beliefs and values. This is the baseline for students feeling safe in the classroom, and students who feel safe, learn.

​

• It is our job as educators to advocate for ourselves, our students, our schools, and our communities and to do what we feel is right by our students. We must put our students, their families, and their needs first even when others do not.