What will I make?

Achievement. Positivity. Relationships. Respect. These are just some of the adjectives that come to mind when I think about my personal philosophy statement, but at the moment they are just words. I am uncertain about the nature of teaching as a profession and how I will fit into that world. What do I believe in and what do I value? How will I teach students and manage a classroom? Will my interaction with students create excellence, better social skills and improved self-awareness? And finally, yet most importantly, what do I need to do to achieve this upon emerging as a fully qualified teacher at the end of the year?

After watching Taylor Mali's powerful poem, 'What teachers make', I was inspired to visualise what I want to make; what I want to achieve. This resulted in the following...

My teaching philosophy is centred on building positive relationships with my students, members of staff and the wider school community. I believe in creating an engaging and positive classroom environment where students feel challenged and supported according to their individual strengths and needs. I aim to share the responsibility for learning with my students by showing respect for them and the content being taught, providing clear aims and goals and promoting learning by inquiry. I aspire to continually develop as a teacher professionally and personally and always be reflecting upon and improving my pedagogical content knowledge.