Thoughts on my Teaching Philosophy

Why do I teach?
I teach because I enjoy learning, and I enjoy helping others learn. I teach because I want a job that inspires me, challenges me, provokes me and makes me feel alive.

How do students best learn?
Students learn in different ways - we've all heard of the ways of learning: visually, aurally, kinesthetically... I think it's easy to think everyone learns in the same way we do, and to close off our minds to the other options available to us.
In a nutshell, I would say that students learn by being immersed, being engaged, being interested, being challenged, being inspired... That may sound like an echo of my first paragraph, and it' supposed to. Teachers can be learners, and learners can be teachers - I think it pays to keep that in mind, both for teacher humility and student empowerment.

What are my goals for my students?
My goals for my students are for them to leave my classroom as "more" than what they were when they met me. That is, for my students to have grown as individuals and as members of their society and culture. Obviously, my goal is for my students to take away something productive and useful to them, and hopefully some measure of my own enthusiasm for learning.

How will I know when I — and they — have succeeded?
I think this is almost a trick question, because it implies that there is an end-point to my teaching and to my students' learning. Success in learning is not a destination, it is a journey - and one, in my view, that should never end. That said, when I see that a student's marks are higher at the end of a year with me than they were the previous year, I'll feel good about my achievement and theirs. When I see students help their peers, or actively debate a topic as a group, or take an interest in what I've introduced to them, I'll feel great.

What qualities are important for a teacher?
Empathy, passion, love, courage, strength, enthusiasm, ethics, a love of learning, equal capacities for criticism and encouragement, people skills, intuition, curiosity, honesty, reliability, fallibility, humility, pride, approachability, knowledge, and more.