Guidance Philosophy
“I am the decisive element in my classroom.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate.
It is my daily mood that makes the weather.
As a teacher, I possess tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.
I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated
or de-escalated, a child humanized or dehumanized.”
- Haim Ginott
This is a very expressive quote that every teacher should be aware of. The teacher leads a classroom, but only at the pace of his or her students and that teacher will make or break how a student feels about attending school. A teacher should only be positive and helpful, never negative and hurtful. A student should trust a teacher and be able to come to school with a confidence that they can and will do their absolute best.
All classrooms should be a safe place for all students. The walls should not be plain, but filled with students’ work. Not only papers with “100%” scrawled on them, but work that the students are proud of, no matter what the grade. After all, they put their hard work and time into completing it, not me, so I shouldn’t always decide which work to hang up. Posters in the room should have positive sayings to make my classroom welcoming. I will use my classroom space differently each year as I learn how my students learn. Each class will be different and I will make changes as necessary.
In my classroom, and hopefully the school system, I will have a zero-tolerance policy for bullying. Every teacher should at least glance at Barbara Coloroso’s book, The Bully, the Bullied, and the Bystander. It is a fantastic read that every teacher should have a copy of. It describes types of bullying and families, and the ways to make it stop within the classroom.
When forming relationships with my students, I plan to be a democratic type of teacher. I will give students choices within limits, and I will allow them to make decisions appropriate to their age. Consequences will be natural or logical, because students, and teachers, can all learn best from their own mistakes.
Parents need to know what is going on in their child’s life. A parent could ask their child, “How was your day? What did you do?” A student of any age would probably respond with an eye roll, a groan, and the ever famous response, “It was fine. We did nothing.” As a teacher I intend to keep parents updated. I will start on a positive note by connecting with parents through e-mails, phone calls, or through a class website. Instead of drilling them with thousands of questions that wouldn’t make sense, I would ask the parents one simple question: What do I need to know about your child?
When working with other staff, I intend to keep all lines of communication open. We are each other’s best resources within the school, and we should be willing to share advice and information with each other. I plan to keep a clear open-minded attitude as a teacher. I will guide and manage a classroom in a positive manner that fulfills the needs of my students.
It’s common for people to make jokes about teachers and that they don’t get paid much, but that has never been a concern for me. It has never been about the money, or the summer vacation, but always and only about the students and the difference that I can and will make.
“One hundred years from now, it will not matter:
What kind of car I drove,
What kind of house I lived in,
How much I had in my bank account,
nor what my clothes looked like.
But the world may be a little better because
I was important in the life of a child.”
- Anonymous
Karen Andersen
Copyright: 2008