Philosophy Paper
 

 As a future teacher, I would like to share my thoughts and feeling with my students.  I hope to maintain a positive attitude, motivate my students to learn, and set goals for my students to reach throughout the academic year.  I believe that my goal as a teacher is to share my knowledge with my students, not just teach them.  The book, Educating Esme, by Esme Raji Codell describes the life of a first year teacher.  Esme states in this book, “So much of teaching is sharing.  Learning results in sharing, sharing results in change, change is learning.”  This quote, to me, defines how to become a great teacher.  I strongly believe that to be a good teacher, one must share the knowledge he or she knows with others, not just teach the material.  Personal stories that one can bring into the classroom, I feel, can get the kids more interested in learning.  As a teacher, I want to go that extra mile to make learning fun for my students.  I want to be able to make the effort to reach those students who do not find learning very interesting and fun and I also want to reach those students who seem to fall behind and never catch up, who feel they get left in the dust.
 I want to be that teacher who sets goals for each student to succeed.  My priority in my classroom is to make sure my students achieve those goals and also any that they may set for themselves.  My students are going to feel special, safe, and loved when they enter my classroom.  I want to encourage my students to have an open relationship with me.  I want my students to feel comfortable when they walk into my class.  I am going to treat my students as if they were my own children and during the time these kids are under my supervision, they are going to feel cared for and loved.
 As a teacher, I believe that one should not narrow herself down to one teaching style or method.  I want my students to be involved in a variety of ways in order to learn.  I want my students moving around the classroom, talking to each other and discussing problems and solutions; I enjoy watching children engage in group-work and helping their peers.  I want to introduce students to a variety of hands-on activities.  One of my goals as a teacher is to be able to reach every single student.  I have learned that one strategy or style is not going to reach each student.  I never want my students to feel that they have failed.  I want to make sure I have several strategies for each lesson that I teach, that I know my students can grasp.  I never want my students to get to that point to where the only option he or she feels they have left is to give up.  My main goal the first couple of weeks of school are to assess my children and use different teaching strategies so that I am aware of how each student in my class learns.  I am going to do everything in my power to keep my students moving forward.  If a child begins to fall behind, I am going to be there to catch him/her and bring him right back on track.
 My classroom is going to be bright, colorful, and decorated with characters, posters, and filled with my students’ work all over the room.  I feel that if my students work hard on a project, then it deserves to be displayed on the wall.  My students are going to be treated equally and I want to be sure they know that I see them as important people.  Everything they do has meaning and describes a part of who they are as an individual.  I would like to see my students to walk in each morning with a smile on their face, and I would like to see that same smile when they walk out of my classroom in the afternoon.  I want to be that teacher who has made an impact on a student’s life.  My goal as a teacher, by the end of each year is to watch my students walk out of my room for the last time with a smile on their faces and know that they have learned through the art of sharing.  I will aspire for each child to meet his or her personal goal for the year.  I look forward to sharing my thoughts, feelings, and knowledge with my students.