My teaching philosophy is all about maintaining positive relationships in a school. The relationships between students, teachers, administrators, parents, and the public need to be built and cared for in order to provide the best education system. The role of the teacher is an inherently social position (there is a reason that the majority of students are still going to school and not learning on the internet) and I believe that an effective teacher manages all of their relationships with professionalism and care.

Below are four aspects of teaching that have stuck out to me as opportunities to use positive relationships to improve my own teaching. In the Pedagogy portion of this website are more specific strategies on how I plan to enact this philosophy.

Creating a positive classroom environment:

A positive classroom is not a fluke. When you walk into a classroom where the students feel safe, supported, and challenged, it is because that teacher has taken the time to develop strong relationships with those students to understand what they need for their education. I believe this starts from day one with the little things like making the effort to learn names and revisiting conversations with the students to show that there is genuine interest in the students.

Planning and implementing engaging lessons:

There are many ways to plan a year, unit, or lesson. Roland Case uses the metaphor of going on a trip, keeping the destination in sight but adjusting the course when necessary. I believe that no matter how well planned your year or lesson is, it will not be fully realized unless there are strong teacher-student relationships to work with.

Varied assessment strategies:

A teacher’s goal is to have their students learn and a reality of education is that this learning needs to be assessed. This does not mean that every student needs to be assessed in the same way. Again, I believe that strong student-teacher relationships are integral as they allow for more varied assessment strategies. In order to assess a student in an ideal setting, the teacher must know what that student needs to succeed.

Lifelong Learning:

I believe that a good teacher has to be a good student and this is helped by strong relationships with colleagues and administration. Professional development goes hand in hand with collaboration. Teachers can learn a lot from each other and communicating with administration leads to more PD opportunities (and perhaps more funding).

This just scratches the surface of where I hope to be in my teaching career, but at the start of it I can recognize that relationships are what I believe drives education.