It is my belief that all students can succeed in school given the right tools, environment, and time. I also think it is critical to their success to have a teacher who is reflective in her teaching and who is willing to get involved in their students’ lives by incorporating their experiences in classroom instruction, reflecting on how to mirror instruction to match the students’ needs, perspectives and interests, and beginning the journey toward building successful democratic classrooms in which students’ needs are placed first. The true purpose of schooling and the responsibility of the reflective teacher are to nurture students to become agents of their own learning and to cultivate students who are passionate about education and view learning as a lifelong process, who are capable of problem-solving and thinking critically, and who are empathic, altruistic citizens in a democratic society.

Not too long ago, I read a book entitled The Big Picture (2004) by Dennis Littky. He spoke of the real goals of education as he saw them over the course of three decades in education. He summarized them as follows and I embrace them as my own as goals for my students: 

·                be lifelong learners

·                be passionate

·                be ready to take risks

·                be able to problem-solve and think critically

·                be able to look at things differently

·                be able to work independently and with others

·                be creative

·                care and want to give back to their community

·                persevere

·                have integrity and self-respect

·                have moral courage

·                be able to use the world around them well

·                speak well, write well, read well, and work well with numbers

·                truly enjoy their life and work.

My hope as an educator is to be a caring and reflective teacher who inspires and influences my students to become passionate about education and to develop a love of learning that will last a lifetime. Everyone remembers a teacher in their past who has sparked their interest in learning in some way. I hope to some day have someone recall the "Mrs. Weakland" who made a difference in their life!  In the words of one of the greatest business leaders of all time, Lee Iacocca, "In a completely rational society, the best of us would aspire to be teachers and the rest of us would settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and responsibility anyone could have." I don't want to settle for anything less...I want to teach children!

-Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
                                                                            -William Butler Yeats