Utopia or My educational philosophy

My schools vision statement is “When students walk across the stage at their graduation from Martinsville High School and descend the ramp on the other side, they are prepared to chase their dreams.”

Education has a job to help students achieve their dreams, dreams that are realized and also dreams to come.  If a student wants to go to college then that student will need the tools to be successful at that level.  If a student wants to be a welder or a stay at home mom those jobs all have skill sets that are necessary to be successful.  My goal as a teacher has less to do with my curriculum and more to do with my students learning how to be self sufficient, empowered, adults that can think critically. 
I believe my role as a teacher is to prepare my students for the next step in life, whether that be real world, college or just the next class up.  I also believe that my job is to encourage critical thinking. I am not Watson (jeopardy computer), I don’t have all of the answers, I want my students to try and figure things out on their own and ask questions when they don’t understand.  I want to show my students different ways of thinking about a problem or situation; allow them to discover other points of view.  I am more of a facilitator that a teacher. This is a role I can be more passionate about than being a walking, breathing encyclopedia.
Technology plays a great role in society today. Students need to know how to be digitally responsible citizens. Allowing them to explore all of the enriching sources that technology has to offer is one way I can contribute to their success in the future. Offering students choice in how they show what they have learned is one way I can integrate technology and allow my students freedom to express themselves in different ways.
One of my favorite quotes that I use now as my own professional vision statement is from Josef Albers, a professor of art and education, “Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.” If the only thing that my students remember from class is that they learned how to think critically I would consider it a job well done.