Kim Labinger
California Teacher of the Year
Thomas A Edison Elementary School, Glendale, CA
Grade 4, all subjects

My teaching philosophy
Teaching is about individuals---real people and their thoughts, feelings, and imaginations---not about numbers, test scores, and papers. It is about getting to know each child, each dream, and each struggle. Each child is part of the great fabric we, who are their teachers, weave, and we must teach as we would weave, each strand treated with care and placed just so. Our students come with that most wonderful of ingredients--imagination-- already brewing. It is our job to stir it, nurture it, and celebrate it, by providing the canvas and stage so that whether it be through dance or drawing, speech or song, their voices will find an audience. We may have to put the test aside to free a passion born of imagination. We may have to bypass a lesson plan in order to help our children ease into their wings, so they will come to recognize the power and importance of their own voices that will, one day, transform the world around them.

My philosophy in action
Opportunities to teach and learn are always among us, and I've learned that some of the best teaching happens when it is least planned, and when it speaks to the whole child. There is always a place in my classroom for a poem, a painting, or a song; always time to dig in the dirt to marvel at worms, or time to stop and watch a moth emerge from its chrysalis. Teaching doesn't get more amazing than that!

My greatest teaching accomplishment
Never yet having to say, "I don't have time."

The most critical issues facing educators today
The most critical issue facing educators today is the school's failure to educate ALL children. All children can learn, and we need to do our best to be sure that they are given the opportunity to achieve their potential.

Ways to resolve this issue
We all need to model diplomacy, and engage in dialogue, critical reading, writing, and thinking. It is our duty to demonstrate how to weigh all points of view, to listen with both ears, and to speak and act justly, not for ourselves alone, but for the wider community to which we all belong. It is our duty to teach our collective young not what to think but how to reason. By incorporating the arts in teaching we provide a means for helping young people discover what it means to be fully human. By experiencing teaching that engages, students learn in an intimate way, and they are able to gain insight, inspiration, and appreciation for something beyond themselves. Prejudices crumble and are replaced by a spirit of collaboration. Self-defeat turns into self-empowerment and students discover something new about themselves and each other.

One thought to inspire teachers to succeed
That somewhere out there is a student who may one day send an email saying, "Thank you for lighting the fire in me to go out and want to right the wrongs of the world, teaching me compassion, and that one person can make a difference."

One lesson every student should learn
That today's struggle may very well be tomorrow's success.

Back to the 2005 Teacher Profiles home page