Now begins the fun part. You've done your research, you've written pedagogical principles, and you understand what a teaching philosophy statement is. And hopefully you've gained some insight into your own teaching, and what you believe and what you're going to implement from this. And now begins the fun part. Now you take everything that you've been learning through this process, and you're going to start writing. And what I encourage you to start with is picking an overall theme.

So initially, when I started, when I wrote my first teaching philosophy statement 1015 years ago, I think it was my theme was teaching is a work of heart. So everywhere all over the place, I had hearts, I had him as my bullet points, I had him as a line to break up different sections, and I really liked it and I still do but as I gotten into teaching that changed because I now own my own business. Tutoring little people, in all walks of life, I shouldn't say just little people because I've also treated a nurse and I've tutored as an adult with comprehension issues. And so, also high school students struggling with spelling. So there's a lot of different people that I've worked with. And anyway, I have changed that since to the idea of having keys to success because I believe that, that you need tools.

And so anyway, I've changed my theme. Having a theme helps me so much because it has this one little statement that you were able to take and it's like having an end goal in mind. So what is your one statement mine is giving students keys to literacy and learning success. That's basically are essentially what I'm What to do, I want to give them to keep the keys to be able to learn on their own, anywhere, anytime. So that's what I would encourage you to do first think of something you may already have. But something that helps keep you focused.

And then pick a format. A lot of places have a teaching philosophy essay, a teaching philosophy statement, or it's just a paragraph. I, I went to don't they had a different format completely. And I really like this format because it's unique, but it's an I believe, therefore, I will statement because it holds you accountable to not just what you believe, but how you're going to implement it. And so, that is the example that I have given you. In the project section of this class.

I have the teaching my teaching philosophy so you are more than welcome to go and look at it. I have it on my A website, that people can go and click on and see what I believe about teaching, and whether or not they want to hire me as a result of what they see. The next thing that I suggest, is to keep it short and sweet. You don't want it to be more than a page long. Because if it goes longer than a page, it just becomes too wordy, and they're not going to take the time. And they're not going to care about what you have to say about what you believe, about teaching.

And quite frankly, principals and administrators don't have time to read anything more than a page long during interviews. That's just the reality. And so if it's long, they're probably just going to toss it aside. But if it's visually appealing, and it looks like there's some solid information in that, that might make the difference in the interview process. Also, I'm going to end it with Be humble. Because remember that teaching is not about you.

It's about your students. And here's how I'm going To talk about this piece, specifically, I have a story. And it actually was a reminder, this excellent reminder on why I do what I do. So I had a student I wanted her to see something and I kept prodding her with questions. And we would reread this passage. And she had this amazing lightbulb moment that I wanted her to see.

And she was so excited. And she was like, look what I figured out all by myself, I did it and she was just bragging about herself and what she did all by herself, completely discounting how I helped her and I, she was an adult, that I was tutoring. And so I was really frustrated initially because I helped you. And although I don't being a teacher, I didn't go into teaching for the credit, but I would like recognitions. And, and so you know how when you have a cup, and you keep adding things to that cup and all of a sudden it's overflowing. It was like that one little drop that just made my cup overflow, and not in a good way.

So internally, I'm boiling, and I'm really upset and i upon reflection, like but I believe in being humble and I believe that you, you ask questions you guide you support, so they do make their own discoveries, and you may not get any credit for it at all. And that's okay, because that's essentially what you want. You want to give them the tools so that they are making the discovery. And it's going to require humility. And a lot of times it's really hard to accept that and that plays a huge and significant role in writing your teaching philosophy statement. So I hope this story encourages you As a teacher, that you're not always going to get credit and it's okay.

Because what you want is for your students to experiment and to practice and ask questions and to discover on their own, and they will appreciate you, but they're not going to show it in the way that you think they should. And quite frankly, that's okay. So here's one that I wanted to give an example of, and how I wrote my teaching philosophy statement. Like I said, I have an example of it in the project section of this class, but I believe learning is a lifelong process. So therefore, I will model that I too am in a constant state. Just like my story about humility, just like my writing down in my bullet journal, my 10 key pedagogical principles and skipping number six, I'm always in the state of learning and I'm always reading To develop my professional career, and I don't want to be stagnant.

So that is how First, I'm going to model that I'm in the state of learning. And here's how I said I was going to do it by reading by writing by studying right alongside them. And that's my goal is to be a lifelong learner. And I want to give them the same tools and the same skills so that they too, can are equipped to implement the same strategies and tools that I use to self direct my learning. That's ultimately my goal. And I hope that this video inspired you and gave you some guidance on how to write a teaching philosophy statement.

That will allow your administrators and not just why your administrators, but that will give you a clear vision on why you're doing what you're doing. It isn't about you. It's about the students that you're inspiring.