The Teacher
I believe there are three qualities necessary to being a good
teacher, an empathy for the students, a fondness for the students, and a love of the profession.  From these three prerequisites all other pedagogical knowledge and skills may follow naturally.  A teacher who loves his/her work has a strong internal motivation to pursue the knowledge which will improve his/her professional skills. 

A teacher who is devoted to his/her students avoids becoming so caught up in a particular methodology, that he/she loses not only flexibility as an instructor, but also loses track of the goal, which is to facilitate the mental and emotional growth of the students so they may find a place in society and make a positive contribution to it. 

A teacher who has empathy for his/her students, will work to create a classroom environment which functions as a supportive micro-community, allowing students to work through problems and conflicts within this environment and create a classroom emotionally ready for learning. 

The Classroom as a Community
I believe all classrooms form a micro community.  Teachers should encourage this community to be a place, which is physically and emotionally safe for all students, and which works toward finding and developing the strengths of each student.  If teachers are not aware of this community, or do not actively work to encourage its development in a positive way, the class community tends to develop into a one dimensional hierarchy.  The most popular and academically successful students being at the top of this hierarchy and the least popular and least academically successful students being at the bottom.  The children at the bottom rarely feel the classroom is emotionally safe, and this in turn will affect their learning as well as their self-esteem. 

I believe it is possible to create a class community which is supportive to all students.  I believe that kindness and mutual respect can be taught.  And that when students are taught to treat each other with kindness and respect, increased self-esteem is a natural side effect for both the recipient and the giver.   Because students learn best when they feel safe, both emotionally as well as physically, a supportive class environment can have a strong effect on students learning capacity. 

The Students
All students are educable and each student has areas of strengths and weaknesses.  I believe it is as important to encourage students in their areas of strength as it is to remediate their areas of weakness. We can create life long learners in our students by teaching them to recognize their own strengths, and encouraging them to pursue careers which will capitalize on their strengths, and give them a sense of accomplishment.  Often the less academically successful students are not encouraged to find or pursue their strengths from an early age because there is so much focus on their areas of weakness.  This does little to enhance these students self-esteem or motivate them to have a positive attitude toward school and anything they associate with school.   As teachers, it is our job to motivate all students to use their education to pursue their interests throughout their life.