"No written word, nor spoken plea can teach young minds what they should be. Not all the books on all the shelves -- but what the teachers are themselves." Rudyard Kipling There are many teaching philosophies that already exist. I don't have any one in particular at which I can point and say, "That's my teaching philosophy!" Rather, as I have made my way through college and worked with many different kinds of teachers, I have collected various aspects of each of these philosophies and made them my own. Here is a brief glimpse at what I consider to be the most important bits of advice: A good teacher is a role model. She teaches her students how to be moral, well-rounded members of society. She understands that social skills are just as, if not, more important than academic skills. And she knows that it is not enough to preach compassion and manners to her students, she must live what she teaches. For where the teacher leads, the students will follow. A good teacher is a facilitator of learning. She expresses a contagious enthusiasm for all that she teaches. She, herself, is a continual learner and works to pass on that love of learning to her students. She understands that successful students have an intrinsic motivation to learn. She works to find and build on that motivation with each and every student in the hopes that they will love learning just as much as she does.