Teaching is an important activity, not only because we pass skills and knowledge onto the next generation, but also because as teachers we serve as significant role models for our students. Most of us have ideas about who we want to be as a teacher. Yet the reality of teaching is that we sometimes get carried away under the pressure inside and outside the classroom, and lose sight of who we truly want to be. It helps if we articulate who we truly want to be, not only because if gives a focus to our actions, but also because we commit ourselves more fully to our thoughts, goals, and ideals once they are put into words. In the end it is all about making a difference, and to help make a difference in the classroom I wrote the “Teaching with a Heart Statement” shown below.
An education system with a heart facilitates learning in an environment that:
- Fosters creativity that is not restrained by reservation.
- Stimulates students to discover their values, helps them to articulate those values, and to live their lives accordingly.
- Is open to growth, expression, and fearless learning.
- Is infused with joy, enthusiasm, and inspiration.
- Motivates one to work hard and develop the skill to focus.
- Helps students reach their potential, whatever that may be for any student.
- Creates a social awareness and a realization of being connected.
- Embraces dissent and diversity, and fosters the skills and willingness to make a new synthesis
- Helps students discover and integrate both halves of their brain in order to lead balanced lives
I have signed this statement, and it now hangs in a frame above my desk. In this way it provides a daily reminder of the teaching principle that I want to follow. In order to commit myself to these principles. I show the statement to students and colleagues when they visit my office; now I have to “live it.”
Source: https://inside.mines.edu/~rsnieder/Teaching_Heart.html
Editor: Michael R. Clarke
