Just like in any profession there comes the need for values that need to be met and constantly reviewed. This idea to behave or act in a certain manner in which is appropriate to your specific discipline. It is important that I make myself fully aware of the values in the teaching profession if I am to become a future teacher myself.

The values present in the teaching profession are far too vast to be able to explain in depth why they are all individually important. However having considered a large number of these values I have chosen five to discuss that I feel play an integral role in this discipline.

Patience

Patience should come second nature to a teacher for many reasons:

• When lesson plans don’t go to accordingly you may have to adapt and compromise.
• You class will be full of children with different abilities so you will have to persevere and overcome barriers you may have to face.
• Taking into account of different learning abilities, the children will in return grasp the teaching points at different times so you have to be patient and help the ones that are in need.
• Class tasks aside you will require patience when working in the school itself whether its with other teaching staff or parents who may try to challenge you over decisions you make concerning their child’s education.

Tolerance

Tolerance very much interlinks with the value I have just discussed above, it is vital in the teaching world for very similar reasons:

• Just like being faced with children with different learning abilities/needs you are also going to be challenged with their own opinions and questions. Some of these you might agree with and want to therefore promote in your lessons and some of which you may not fully agree with. However as a professional you need to appear very non biased in your way of thinking so that it does not influence their development.
• An example of this may be certain lessons you are having to deal with regarding the religious side of the curriculum. This approach of appearing very neutral in your thought process is crucial. Children in your class are going to have come from different religious backgrounds and in order to make the other children aware of these backgrounds it is essential that you educate them only on the facts of each religion rather than forcing one in particular on them.
• Classroom aside, teachers need a great amount of tolerance when dealing with other members involved within a school, especially parents. For example commitments such as parents nights can sometimes cause disputes between a parents opinion of their child compared to a teachers viewpoint. They may not like to hear constructive feedback of areas their child could develop in. Therefore you need to tolerate their side of the dispute and word it in such a way that you can always back up the conclusion that you have come to, from such things as pieces of work or attainment record sheets.

Fairness

• Something which is often the case amongst teachers is assumptions, they are often made without realising it, regarding the children in their class. These assumptions are often based upon factors such as the child’s background, their language bracket and the way their appear at school. As a professional this is completely forbidden, you have to be very fair as a teacher and treat every child/colleague/parent as an equal and be very open minded when working with them.
• As a teacher you need to be aware of every individual in your class and flag up any problems that may arise amongst them. Such problems may require further action, as a professional you need to distinguish the area of work that may need to step in to help. It would only be an injustice to your pupils that you are essentially responsible for if you did not look at them in an holistic approach and cater to all their needs.

Respect

• Working in any establishment, there comes a degree of respect needed. In a school there is no difference, there are different contributors within a school ranging from support staff to parent helpers. But the main shared goal within a school is the well-being of the children, this is reinforced through the approach of GIRFEC. This idea of everyone within a school working collaboratively in order to achieve the best towards the development of the children present. Therefore this need for respect concerns many areas such as being able to cooperate successfully with everyone, be open minded, listen to others, build a trusting community and all share the main ethos of the school itself.
• Respect also needs to be present throughout the teaching practices within a school. Often a school has a vision statement or set in stone aims. This requires teachers to create and plan certain lessons to promote this so that the school can have a wholesome community feel where everyone is working together to achieve the same outcomes.

Compassion

• In the teaching profession as like in many others there needs to be a great deal of compassion felt. I think this feeling of passion towards your chosen discipline really rubs off on other colleagues or in this instance the pupils in which the teacher is in contact with. If you have this love for you profession then I feel like you can engage with it further and go that extra mile. This approach of making lessons more exciting or promoting new ways of learning that perhaps haven’t even been considered by someone who only does enough for their practices and no more.
• I know myself as a pupil back at school I enjoyed going to the subjects that the teacher showed an extent of compassion for. They were as a result more upbeat which really made an impact on my development as I wanted to do well.