Educate comes from a Latin word meaning “to lead forth,” and this is the essential aim of education: the leading forth of younger or less practiced students toward a fuller knowledge and understanding in a particular area. Though some students are more easily led forth than others, I believe that all humans possess a desire to learn and can learn. It is the teacher's responsibility to find the methods by which to best lead students forth, as it is the student's responsibility to participate to some degree in being led. More specifically, a teacher is obligated to recognize diversity among students – whether gender, race, ethnicity, language, socioeconomic background, learning style, or ability – and adjust teaching respectively. Each student in turn responds differently, but again, it is the student's role to participate in the learning in some manner.

Historically, education has not always been for everyone, but in the United States public education affords this opportunity to all and in fact, requires it by law. There are many reasons for this, one of which is to ensure an educated and skilled populace, who can read, write, and function in the workplace. A teacher, as a public servant charged with leading forth the next generation, is held to a high standard in the community and should provide the best possible model for young people in every sense.

The purpose of education is to enable independence. “Give a man a fish and you feed him a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” The true purpose of education is to be able to educate oneself. My goal as a teacher is to model and facilitate thinking and problem solving toward this goal. I like the Montessori concept of teacher as “keeper” of the environment, one whose role it is to facilitate experiences.

In my teaching I incorporate a number of theories about how learning occurs. I use behaviorist ideas in classroom management and instruction, reinforcing positive behavior through praise and rewards while discouraging unwanted behavior with undesirable consequences such as loss of free time. I adhere to constructivist, multiple intelligence, and brain-based research theories which advocate that learning take place in a social, cooperative, sensory rich, experiential, and contextual environment. Students build new understandings upon what they already know, and they can sometimes “construct” more meaningfully by working with each other in small groups, than by listening to a teacher. From my own experience I know that people are intelligent in different ways – I have students who can't sit still but are wonderful communicators and storytellers; who are poor at recalling facts but can express themselves and ideas graphically; who balk at reading and writing but have terrific social skills. I myself excel with words but have difficulty with spatial relationships. So I am aware that students should be offered as broad a set of experiences as possible. Brain-based research, which I have had the opportunity to learn a great deal about this year, posits that the brain processes many kinds of information at once, in the search for meaning and pattern. To capitalize on how the brain works, students should be provided numerous experiences that stimulate the senses and are meaningful within the contexts of their lives.