My teaching philosophy is synonymous with my personal philosophy of life.  As I evolve and grow as a person, I know that my teaching philosophy will grow too.  I believe that every day I should be mindful of my mood, feelings, body, mind and actions and how it affects me, others around me and my surrounding environment.  As I continuously learn to be aware of this connection between myself, the community and the environment, I also want to teach students the importance of this awareness for themselves. 

                Elementary school is not simply a place to learn to read, write and do arithmetic.  Classrooms offer students the chance to grow as people, individually and socially.  As teachers we need to give students the tools and experiences to learn about the world through their personal exploration.  Teachers are there to support students as they delight in their accomplishments and learn from their weaknesses.  We are there to guide students in exploring and discovering the world around them.  To educate a student is not just to tell them the answers, but teach them to find their own answer, discover the underlying concepts behind that answer and be able to give the reason behind it.  Students need to learn for themselves the how and why of every concept otherwise students will simply become robots who do cannot think for themselves.  Teachers only have students for one year, which in the grand scheme of life is a very short period of time.  To help students develop metacognitive awareness gives them life-long learning tools for all future learning.     

                Many teachers do not see social awareness as a subject that they must teach, but I view the social aspect of school as the most important element.  What good is a genius of mathematics if they cannot communicate their ideas with others or use their theories to help the greater whole?  Children must learn social skills in order to participate in society and they are educated of these norms through not only their parents, but teachers, mentors and peers.  Fully including all students into the general education classroom is crucial to students developing these skills.  Not only are the students with needs accommodated in an inclusive setting, but the general education students also learn how to communicate and accept students who are different from them. 

                Students must also learn that their actions affect the environment that surrounds them as well.  On a broader scale students must realize the effect that they can personally have on the earth, but building awareness should start at the community level.  Students should learn to take ownership of their school to make it a safe, clean environment for all students to learn in.  With this as the starting point they can begin to branch out and understand how their actions affect their town or city, state, country and world.  Since we now line in an international community, teachers need to address these issues in the way they run the classroom.