Diane M. Cummins
New Jersey Teacher of the Year
Clearview Regional High School, Mullica Hill, NJ
Grade 12, English

My teaching philosophy
No two humans who grace the soil of this earth think the same thoughts, feel the same emotions, react the same to similar situations or learn in the same modality. Hence, the teaching of students must incorporate a holistic approach, which balances a myriad of varied teaching methodologies. It is the duty of the classroom teacher to arm herself with a vast repertoire of teaching strategies to actively engage her students on a daily basis. The teacher must be willing to pull out all the stops in order to motivate her students to achieve their maximum potential.

Within every student lies the potential for greatness. The teacher’s responsibility is to find that greatness, nurture it, and then set it free. The key element here is this very belief, that within each student is a seed waiting to be cultivated by a caring teacher. The consummate educator is the one who realizes that all cultivation cannot be achieved by the same processes. She must look outside of her own learning and personal strengths to recognize the varied learning strategies and strengths of her students. She must unearth a plethora of means to make each student experience success in order to achieve his or her personal academic and emotional growth.

Teachers are not just conveyors of information. Success lies within the ability of educating the students not just in the academic arena, but also in preparation for the “real” world. Teachers prepare the citizens of tomorrow. If students are to become outstanding contributors to the future of the human race, then teachers must help to facilitate this transition. It is the teacher’s duty to pick the locks of her close-minded students and stretch the limits of her open-minded students. Teachers can only achieve these results when a mutual trust has been achieved by balancing respect, work ethic, and a secure learning environment. Every teacher is responsible for making her classroom a safe harbor where students are free to openly discuss their opinions without fear of criticism or censure. Once these issues--respect, work ethic, and safety have been established, there are no limits to what can be achieved in the classroom.

My philosophy in action
As a teacher of English, I have the good fortune of teaching students great pieces of literature. They don’t always feel so “fortunate” nor might they deem these pieces as “great” literature. Using varied teaching methodologies to reach my students never veers me from focusing on the greatest strength of the learning of literature, which is it’s timeless. Times change, events change, settings change, but the human condition does not. People of the Anglo Saxon days, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and henceforth had the same basic needs that human beings embarking upon the third millennium still possess today. As a teacher of literature, it is my role to take students outside of the book itself and to connect the literary characters and themes to the timeless human condition, for it is in this very place that students will discover insights into truth and life itself.
My personal strength in teaching comes from not only recognizing the potential of all students, but in acting as a temporary support for them while they come to realize their own abilities. To accomplish this, I provide a nurturing classroom environment where students learn to explore the vast capacities that they all possess. It is my goal to provide my students with not only the basics, but with the open-mindedness, the bold confidence and the courage of their convictions that will allow them to develop into independent thinkers who will venture forth into this new millennium.

My greatest teaching accomplishment
Teachers by nature tend not to see their normal responsibilities to students considered as great accomplishments. I get feelings of accomplishment by everyday interactions with my students. I don’t need to receive public accolades for what I do. The small “thank you” from a student is what gives me the greatest satisfaction. A “thank you” can take many forms, from a student raising his SAT scores, to receiving a college recommendation letter, to an e-mail from a former student about receiving an “A” on a paper in his college English class. Thanks are also given for taking the time to help students with personal or emotional issues. Regardless of the reasons for students’ taking the time to say, “thank you,” the sense of personal and professional accomplishment is unparalleled by any public honor.

The most critical issue facing educators today
A major critical education issue today is one that has been echoing through the past decades, but there is greater exigency today than perhaps ever before. “Johnny still can’t read.”

As the public education sector enters into the third millennium with its accelerating technological advances, students need to understand that the importance of the written word is still vital. Critics can look to numerous causes for the continuing mediocre reading scores in schools across this country. Some point fingers at the whole language gurus who skipped over the phonics components because they were not in vogue over the past years. Unfortunately now, many educators are seeing the products of those teachers who followed the trends in reading, rather than trusting in their instincts of good teaching and instruction in the basics supported with newer methodologies. The bottom line is that good reading programs need to be evaluated and balanced at all grade levels in schools. They need to be all-encompassing, so that kids who can’t learn it one way will get an opportunity to learn it another way.

Coupled with the problem caused by fads in reading, fewer and fewer children are occupying their leisure time by actually reading for pleasure. They spend countless hours in front of televisions, computer monitors, and video game systems. They need constant stimulation, utilizing numerous sensory overloads and can never imagine doing something as mundane as reading a book. They allow their minds to be enjoined by television directors’ and software designers’ views on life. Rarely do they think to escape into a book where the author allows the readers to make personal connections and interactions between themselves and the text.

It’s of little surprise that so many kids can’t read. Who can do something well that they don’t frequently do themselves? Too many kids just don’t read. That certainly doesn’t mean that we, as teachers, should throw away the books and put all of our texts on CD. It does, however, present a challenge to all educators. All teachers, despite their content area specialization, need to become teachers of literacy. Often times, students won’t read course material because they find it too difficult. Teachers need to become proficient in reading and writing strategies that will assist students in their specific content areas.

Ways to resolve this issue
In-servicing teachers in the area of literacy is vital at this juncture in the educational arena. It is critical that teachers be knowledgeable of text types and purposes for reading if they are to reach their students. Students need to learn how to read informational, persuasive, narrative, and work-place texts and somebody has to teach them. The problem is that too many content area specialists view reading and writing as the jobs for the English and language arts people. Content area teachers fail to realize that English is actually a content area itself. Reading and writing instruction in English classes addresses all of these text types; however, it tends to focus on the narrative. Other content area teachers would greatly benefit their students if they would become cognizant of reading strategies and incorporate them into their daily lesson planning.

Today’s college education programs need to include a greater emphasis on reading and writing components as part of all teacher coursework and training. One reading course hardly prepares today’s or tomorrow’s educators for the literacy deficiencies that they will encounter with their students. Teachers must realize the purpose and need for students to read and write well as they prepare them to become literate citizens of the future.

One thought to inspire other teachers to succeed
Thinking back on my personal and professional life as an educator, I would like to inspire teachers by making them think highly of themselves as professionals. We truly encompass countless things. I realize that I am an architect…I plan, design, and leave my mark on the future. I am a builder…my students are the building blocks and the foundation for that future. I build bridges from the known to the unknown, and I serve as a span between the past and the future. I am a composer…I pen a few small verses and short lyrics on the songs of tomorrow.
I am a diplomat…I pry open the locks of the closed-minded. I model respect for others, while serving to mediate differences, and foster a global community. Summarily, as educators, we are so much to so many. An ordinary miracle as a teacher, we are everything.

One lesson every student should learn
If I could successfully teach my students just one lesson, it would be something as simple as the one that they learned in kindergarten… the “golden rule.” I truly believe that much of what we need to remember as adults, we were taught as children. On a more sophisticated level, this rule parallels to a quote by the 17th/18th-century philosopher, Goethe, where he so profoundly and eloquently stated: “If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.” Throughout my years of teaching, I have embraced this philosophy in order to make all of my students receive the dignity which they deserve. In turn, hopefully, my students have learned to treat people in a similar respected manner.

Back to the 2004 Teacher Profiles home page