Teaching Philosophy

Introduction

I consider teaching to be among the noblest of professions that exist in today's society. It involves the empowerment of young, innocent, and eager minds with the mental tools or knowledge that they will need to accomplish various occupational tasks in the future. The teacher is not only responsible for the knowledge that a child acquires, but is also involved in the structuring of morals and principles in children; they are also instrumental in the instilling of wisdom in a child (Kasachkoff, 1998). Wisdom can be defined as the ability to make sound judgments and decisions. It has nothing to do with knowledge. These values work together in the lives of children, to bring out individuals who are industrious and successful in the future. If teachers fail to instill these values in their students, they do a huge disservice to society.

Some of today's criminals are people who received sufficient knowledge, but did not receive sufficient moral guidance and structure while they were young. Therefore, they learnt from the negative influences that were prevalent in their lives at that time. Some children come from dysfunctional homes where they lack peace or solace; thus, the teacher remains as their main hope and guide in all matters pertaining to life, as a whole. My desire is to see students excel both academically and in life. Therefore, my style of teaching will incorporate talks that give life lessons. I will cause the students to understand that they are the responsibility for their education. I will also instill a learning style that will require full participation of the students.

Connections with Children

Before a teacher can be effective, he or she must be fully accepted by his or her students. When a student fails to accept a teacher, he or she will not listen to or respond positively to the instruction off that teacher. The student may end up failing the subjects taught by that teacher. As a teacher, I will make it a priority to gain acceptance from the students that I will teach. I will do this through being humorous in class, and incorporating fun activities in the lesson plans that I know the students will enjoy. Students come from different backgrounds and lifestyles. Some come from well off families, and some from poor families. Some come from broken families, and some are orphans and have been raised by guardians.

Some have been abused physically or sexually in their childhood. The way one child, from one of the above backgrounds, will respond to teaching and education, will immensely different from the way another will respond. Because of this, I will make it a priority, first, to learn about the children that I will teach. I will create sufficient individual time with each of them to learn their backgrounds, and their character types. This way, I will know how to handle each of them. Through taking the time to know them, I will know those that may have emotional or psychological problems like depression or learning disabilities. Thus, I will be able to give them the appropriate specialized attention and counseling to able them to continue well in their studies. 

Reasons for Being a Teacher

One key reason why I want to be a teacher is simply that I enjoy doing it. I draw immense pleasure from coaching a student and seeing him rise from a low academic standard to a point of academic excellence in that field. I have the God-given grace to be patient with students. As long as a student is willing, I am willing to work with him or her, for whatever span of time, to ensure that he or she rises to academic excellence. Another reason why I desire to be a teacher is that I am of the opinion that teaching is one of the most vital professions in our nation today. I believe a nation's education system determines the rate of development of that nation. The schools produce the architects, teachers, doctors, engineers, visionaries, and politicians of tomorrow, and it is the work of teachers to mould these leaders of tomorrow. Thus, I want to be part of them.

Experience:

My most recent experience as a teacher was during the last semester, whereby I was doing high school tuition at a high school near my home area. I was teaching mathematics, and I had a class of seven that I would meet after the regular classes for one hour in one of the classrooms. The advantage of having a tuition class is that the students that come for it are focused and know what they want. Teachers doing tuition normally enjoy themselves because the students are eager to learn and receptive to all that you teach.

Conclusion

Teaching is a profession of enormous worth to society. More should be done to support this profession in order to create even better leaders for tomorrow.