How Reflecting On Our Core Beliefs About Kids Helps Guide Our Teaching

As I reflect on the many blog posts I’ve written over the years, one thing becomes very clear: there are certain ideas I keep coming back to. I sometimes joke that I sound like a broken record, but the truth is, these ideas mattered to me then, and they still do now because I’ve seen how well they work.

Over time, I’ve realized that much of my writing returns to core beliefs about teaching, meeting children where they are, building confidence, and recognizing that learning doesn’t occur in isolation. These beliefs quietly shaped my teaching, even when I didn’t always stop to name them.

When I was teaching full-time, I probably wouldn’t have sat down and listed my core values. But looking back, I can see how strongly they influenced my choices. I believed every child could learn, and I knew that attitude played a big role in how children approached challenges. Those beliefs showed up in how I planned, how I responded when things didn’t go smoothly, and how I supported students who needed extra encouragement.

In recent years, as I’ve spent time volunteering in classrooms since retiring, those beliefs have only been reinforced. Programs change, and new ideas come and go, but the things that really matter tend to stay the same. Respect, optimism, and belief in children still sit at the heart of good teaching.

This series is my way of stepping back and pulling together some of those recurring ideas from past blog posts. Rather than revisiting each one individually, I want to highlight the key themes that continue to feel important and look at how they’ve held up over time. In some ways, this feels like a roundup. In other ways, it’s a chance to reflect on the final years of my teaching career and what I’ve learned since.

As I work through these reflections, drawing on the ideas and experiences of the last several years, I’m sure there will be moments of affirmation and moments of rethinking. I hope that what I share offers a broader view of how our core values, our understanding of children, and the curriculum we’re asked to teach can work together in meaningful ways.

​I’ll focus on one area at a time so things don’t get too overwhelming, although there will naturally be some overlap. Teaching rarely fits into neat categories, and my thinking doesn’t either.

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