“We leave traces of ourselves wherever we go, on whatever we touch.” -Lewis Thomas It is around this quote that throughout the experience I have gained, my teaching philosophy has been molded. By building positive relationships and serving as a role model, facilitator, motivator, and supporter of my students, I will teach them life-long skills that are needed for further growth and development. As an educator, I must be aware of and help build my students’ social, psychological, physical and emotional development in addition to their cognitive growth. Having regular communication with parents/guardians is absolutely crucial to this task as they provide a motivational framework for my students when they are not in the classroom. Ultimately, I want to prepare my students to have the desire to educate themselves throughout their lives. Helping children make personal connections enables them to experience the joy of learning, while also inspiring their desire to learn. Furthermore, by differentiating my instruction while targeting multiple learning styles, I strive to meet the diverse needs of all my students ensuring their successes in the classroom. I not only want my students to be academically successful, I want them to be able to apply their learning to everyday life and be ready for the challenges that they will inevitably face in the future. Above all else, my students will know from day one that though I must manage them, I will never be absent in their hearts; because as Kid President once said,“Sometimes being a hero is showing up, even on days when you don’t want to.”