The values that I aspire to demonstrate as a teacher are integrity, a sense of hope, patience, diligence, and dedication. I believe teachers are responsible for being honest and authentic with their students. As such, mistakes are bound to occur throughout my teaching career and I want to help my students to become aware that success is still achievable despite drawbacks. Demonstrating a sense of hope is vital because it will help students grow and develop skills to help them become lifelong learners. With hope, students will understand that they are capable of reaching their full potential and becoming successful in whatever they choose to do. Patient teachers display one of the First Peoples Principles of Learning – learning involves patience and time. Thus, I will be patient with my students and understand they are all different and have different ways of knowing, processing information, and cognitive styles to which I will try to adapt accordingly. Diligence is an important value to endure as it characterizes the time management, preparedness, and effectiveness of your performance. Lastly, I believe dedication is the most important value to bear. It is my aim to dedicate my work and love for teaching to all my students so that they can recognize that they all matter to me.
My ultimate goal as a future educator is to promote lifelong learning. I want to encourage innovative, passionate, and intellectual thinking. However, I also want to help all my students develop their independence, their confidence to learn through exploration, and their development of interpersonal, social, and emotional skills that will allow them to reach their full potential. To reach this goal, I will ensure that my lessons are interactive and that the classroom has a sense of community that all perspectives are acknowledged. Furthermore, motivation, collaboration, and reflection are factors that will also help me to reach my goal. It is vital for teachers to collaborate with colleagues to share ideas and reflect on others’ perspectives. I also believe reflecting on my mistakes will also help me to reach my goals as I will understand what had worked and what did not work. Lastly, I understand that I may not be able to reach all my goals at once which is why it is important to narrow my goals so that they may be attainable.
All in all, my current path is learning and my future path is teaching. Since learning and teaching go hand in hand, I believe my experiences with both will give me the necessary insight on how to connect to my students as a teacher. In addition, my current path has allowed me to understand my main motivations. As such, I am motivated by my own interests in education and to make a difference.