Introduction
Philosophy is the rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct (reference.com). It is an investigation of thought for further support one’s thinking. My philosophy as an educator is presented on this paper.
This paper discusses my personal educational philosophy in life. It contains the following as I perceived: i) Philosophy, ii) Human Nature, iii)Task of Education, iv) Role of the School, v) Role of the Teacher/Principal/Coordinator, vi) Teacher-Student Relationship, vii) How Students Learn, viii) Curriculum Emphasis, ix.) Professional Ethics and Societal Contexts, x.) Curriculum Emphasis, xi) Who is to be educated?
For nine years in the field of education, I have acquired beliefs and ideas that support my teaching and these are presented in this paper.
Personal Philosophy of Education
“If you want to change the things around you, start from where you are.” This is my personal philosophy in life and it supports my ideology in teaching which is, “I myself, as a teacher will teach with whole heart, with all my strength to help each student to discover their potentials and enlighten their minds to the importance of their existence here on earth.” Every teacher is looking forward for the improvement of his/her students; it can only be attained if the teacher is an inspiring person for the students to be influenced.
Human Nature
Inside every person there are seeds of greatness. The responsibility of parents and leaders is to nurture and cultivate those seeds (Something to Smile About, Zig Ziglar, p. 117).
Every single person has abilities and talents that are valuable. If you will acknowledge the good in others, you will free them to be all they can be. When people are acknowledged for who they are and for what they do well, their abilities are elevated. You can bring out the best in others by saying what you see in them that is good. All the time we are thinking good thoughts about others. Maybe it’s how smart someone is, how beautiful they look or how we admire their abilities. And then we fail to speak those thoughts to them. Make it a goal to speak words of support and acknowledgment. Every day make it a commitment to share something that you see that is good in someone else. Don’t miss the opportunity to sew a seed of support.
People are so used to criticism. They have become so addicted to criticism that they even believe they need it to grow. In our classes, we sometimes have actors and speakers who complain because we acknowledge their gifts and abilities rather than criticizing. Some people have become so accustomed to criticism that they often find it difficult or impossible to receive support and acknowledgment. They actually put up barriers to taking in love, acceptance and support. I am here to tell you that people do not grow through criticism. Criticism rips the strength out of people, so they sink into negativity. Criticism takes people down into what is wrong. It makes them focus on trying to be right instead of being real.
If you want to make a difference in the world, bring out the best in others through love rather than criticism. When you honor the potential in someone by seeing what they can be, they start to change. No one can stay the same under a barrage of loving acknowledgment. This is how we transform others; this is how we transform the world. So tell others the good you see in them. Sew a seed of support. They will respond by coming up to your vision for them. You will be people builder and world healer.

Task of Education
Education is the best solution to poverty-even most of the world’s problems! Education is the key to the country’s progress. Countless studies have pointed out the need for government resources to be concentrated on improving basic education and reducing drop-out rates. Education must be the most effective economic ‘equalizer’, but with the present disparity in educational standards between the good and expensive private schools, on one hand, and the poorly equipped public schools, on the other, the gap between the rich and poor cannot be reduced.” (Quality Teachers, vol.8, no.2, p.9)
Education is for all. It fills up one’s mind from ignorance. Education is the solution to every problem arising around us.
A true education not only teaches facts, practical applications but also values. A teaching that misses any of the three areas is half-full, it doesn’t meet the exact meaning of education. A teaching without facts produces unguided person because they work without knowing the reason behind of their actions. A teaching without practical applications produces inexperience person because he/she cannot apply what is in their mind, knowledge is not enough, application of knowledge is important. A teaching without values produces an unfocused person because he/she doesn’t know where, when to apply his/her knowledge and skills in life. I am saying that values are the most important part of teaching. A quality outcome of students from school is for them to become good citizen of this country.
The responsibility of educating the youth, as far as this generation is concerned, will never shift. Teachers, the living and breathing kind, will still be the most compelling indications of this world’s knowledge.
Role of the School
Vision of the school must be clearly defined because it outlines what the organization wants to be, or how it wants the world in which it operates to be. It concentrates on the future. It is a source of inspiration. It provides clear decision-making criteria (wikipedia.org). A vision statement is sometimes called a picture of the school in the future but it’s so much more than that. The vision statement is an inspiration, the framework for all your strategic planning.
A vision statement may apply to an entire school or to a single division of the institution. Whether for all or part of an organization, the vision statement answers the question, “Where do we want to go?”
Schools should be seen as a resource for the larger community. In this sense, teachers and members of the community become co-owners of the school and in doing so collectively determine what is taught, how the school is organized, and what role the school might play in the affairs of the community and neighborhood agencies.
School can be used as a strategic site for addressing social problems and helping students understand what it means to exercise rights and responsibilities as critical citizens actively engaged in forms of social learning that expand human capacities for compassion, empathy, and solidarity.
Schools should foster public values and not merely advance excessive individuals, competitiveness, and intellectual consumerism.
The existing systems of schooling must give teachers more power to control their own work conditions and to implement educational programs with the universities and other social groups in which they work in dialogue in order to address the various problems of society.
School buildings should be limited in size to permit teachers and others to provide a sense of democratic community for themselves and their students.
Schools should provide teachers an opportunity to exercise power over the conditions of their work. They should not lose their connection to the neighborhoods they are intended to serve.
Another thing to consider is the provision of the school to its employees to help as much as possible to meet the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In this sense, once the employee meets its personal needs, he/she can perform well. A teacher who is disturbed because of personal problems cannot be an educator for the students to learn but an influence that students will not benefit.

Role of the Teacher/Principal/Coordinator
It is a famous quote that teaching is the noblest profession. The late Secretary Ricardo T. Gloria, DepED secretary from July 1994 to June 1998 after being appointed by then President Fidel V. Ramos. His slogan, “Be proud, you are a teacher, the future depends on you,” was his way of uplifting the self-esteem of the Filipino teachers. To keep uplifted with this slogan, selection of teachers at the start of their study must be very tight. St. Thomas Aquinas depicts three things in the character of those who are to teach: stability, clearness, and purity of intention. With stability, the teacher may never stray from the truth; with clearness, he is to teach without obscurity, and the purity of intention, he may seek God's glory and not his own. (Specimen Pages from the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas, p. 2).
Base on Stoneyhill research in 2007 about the primitive ego theory of human social and spiritual sevelopment© (or PETHSSD©), without authentic spiritual growth, our human species will be unable to create a sustainable compassionate, non-violent global culture. Only when we make the commitment to intentionally grow in self-awareness will we achieve the level of self-awareness required to create sustainable, healthy and compassionate relationships with others. A basic premise of PETHSSD© is that authentic spiritual growth and growth in self-awareness are synonymous. You can’t have one without the other.
It is clearly stating that as teacher, one must develop first self-awareness and spiritual growth before emerging with the education field. Christ said, “A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher”
(Luke 6:40, NIV). No one can give what one’s doesn’t have. A teacher in the classroom is not perfect human being but a person with fully developed, professionally and personally.
The role of every individual in the educational system is to work together to make quality education a reality. Education is the key to personal, community, national and global progress. (Quality Teachers, vol. 8, no. 2, p.9)
Teacher-Student Relationship
Inspiring teachers produce inspired students. More of us need to get involved in working with our young people instead of being so quick to criticize. (Something to Smile About, Zig Ziglar, p.117). The youngsters are like clay that is molded through the environment surrounded them and teachers play the most important role in this part. “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice” (Philippians 4:9). Every interaction in the classroom, teachers serve as models, in every action makes, directly or indirectly, teachers influence students. As educators, be very careful in everything that comes into mind, for thoughts become words; be very careful in everything that comes out from the mouth, for words become actions. Words have power, be careful what to say, it can make or break a person. Raymond S. Sanchez, in his interview in Quality teacher magazine says, “The quality of education and of students depends much on the quality of teachers. More than just being concerned about intellectual development, he believes that teachers must strive for the overall development of their students and of themselves.” A student development relies on the hand of the teacher, making a difference to the life of a student is a huge responsibility in each and every educator in the field. Teachers are therefore expected to build a strong character with moral values herself and inevitably help her students achieve the same thing.


How Students Learn
"The biggest mistake of past centuries in teaching has been to treat all children as if they were variants of the same individual, and thus to feel justified in teaching them the same subjects in the same ways." (Howard Gardner, 1994)
NOT ALL LEARNERS ARE ALIKE. The model of differentiated instruction requires teachers to be flexible in their approach to teaching and to adjust the curriculum and presentation of information to learners rather than expecting students to adapt themselves to the curriculum.
In a differentiated classroom, teachers begin where their students are, not where they feel she should be or as the curriculum dictates. Instructional methodologies vary and are adapted to meet the needs of individual and diverse learners.
To ensure effective teaching and learning, teachers need to link tightly three key elements of the curriculum: content, process, and product. By definition, differentiated instruction is consistently using a variety of instructional approaches to modify content, process, and/or products in response to learning readiness and the interests of academically diverse learners.
1. Content: what students should come to know (facts), understand (concepts and principles), and be able to do (skills) as a result of a given segment of study.
2. Process: describes activities designed to ensure that students use key skills to make sense of the content.
3. Product: vehicles through which students demonstrate and extend what they have learned as a result of a considerable segment of learning.
Students inside the classroom are different in many ways. Teacher should be aware of the uniqueness of his/her students. Differentiated instruction and activities must be implemented in the classroom. In this way the teacher is catering the needs and capabilities of the students; it is a way of helping each child to develop to what he/she can be.


Curriculum Emphasis
The curriculum is the heart and soul of the school system, as it “gives meaning and direction to all educational effort and constitutes a potent instrument for linking education and development” (Quality Education, vol. 8, no. 2, p. 8). The concept of Understanding by Design (UbD) constructed by Jay Magtighe and Grant Wiggins in 2004 and together with the Differentiated Instruction (DI) are very ideal. It supports the philosophy of John Dewey that says, “is problem is that of inducing a vital and personal experiencing. Hence, what concerns him, as teacher, is the ways in which that subject may become a part of experience.” This can be done by starting small and taking one step at a time, sacrifice comes in the part of the teacher because of lot of preparation but what we are here for, for our students who are longing for knowledge and to strengthen with values.
Professional Ethics and Societal Contexts and Expectations
In the preamble of Code of Ethics for Teachers says, “Teachers are duly licensed professionals who possesses dignity and reputation with high moral values as well as technical and professional competence in the practice of their noble profession, and they strictly adhere to, observe, and practice this set of ethical and moral principles, standards, and values.” Teaching as the noblest profession indicates that teachers as the most cautious work as you could ever have. Here, you are not only molding young minds but also living what you teach. Where ever you are and whatever you do you must be always a teacher as you can be.
Who is to be educated?
I was inspired by St. Augustine’s philosophy on who is to be educated. According to him, education is a passion and a process of opening up the mind to ideas and critical thinking ("skeptical philosophy"). In that sense, all people, regardless of class should be given the opportunity to be educated. Certainly no elitist, not one to reserve his time and energy for those he considered worthy of a reply.
The government must support the life-long education of each citizen in the country. The state is responsible to the intellectual development of each individual because human resource is the key to national development.
Preparing Education students in the best possible way for their future roles as teachers is very vital. It is then very important that the curriculum for teachers designed in such a way that it equips education students with substantial knowledge of subject content, expertise in executing teaching methodologies, and adequate exposure to and experience in actual teaching, all aimed at encouraging student learning (Quality Teacher, vol.8, no. 2, p.25).
After earning a degree in doctoral study, hopefully in five year time, I am planning to move to tertiary education to teach in the college of education where the future teachers are there. I believe that quality education entails quality teachers; quality teachers produce quality students. I believe that teacher entails to the performance of students. There are lots of strategies that can be used to cater the individual differences of students. What students are looking for is a teacher who can touch their lives through everyday delivery of the lesson. Much time must really be devoted in planning to make differentiated instruction inside the classroom.
I believe, in stepping a higher level of taking responsibility, I can make a difference in the quality of education for the future teacher of this country. My philosophy in life is:
“If you want to change the things around you, start from where you are.”
If every teacher inside the classroom is developed not only professionally but also personally with spirituality, I know that we will develop quality and competent students who can help our developing country to move on to a progressive and sooner to a developed country.



Bibliography
Education in the Philippines Forum. February 13, 2010. cCopyright © 2002-2010
CODE OF ETHICS FOR PROFESSIONAL TEACHERS
http://eduphil.org/forum/code-of-ethics-for-teachers-in-the-philippines-t-449.html
DepED mourns the death of Dr. Ricardo Gloria. February 11, 2010. Copyright 2010. http://www.deped.gov.ph/e_posts.asp?id=476
Staff Development for Educators. February 11, 2010. Copyright 2006. http://differentiatedinstruction.com/
Scott Chester. Be Careful What You Think. February 11, 2010. Copyright 2010. http://www.schester.com/2007/12/02/be-careful-what-you-think/
The Educational Theory of Augustine of Hippo. February 11, 2010. Copyright 2010.
http://www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Augustine.html