I have quite a few, but the first one that comes to mind is by the famed pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton., talking about children in general. "They have to feel good about themselves or nothing else is going to happen? What are some of yours?
A few of my favorites: They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. You teach children, not subjects.
Most of the ones I write down are from people on here (below their posts). My favorite (don't know from which member): Education is a progressive discovery of your own ignorance. (Will Durant) That struck a chord with me. It's so absolutely true. The more I know, the more I realize I don't know.
It is not my job to work myself to death while my students watch. It is my job to work my students to death while I watch.
This is too long for a signature but still one of my favorites: He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool; avoid him. He who knows not and knows that he knows not is a student; teach him. He who knows and knows not that he knows is asleep; wake him. He who knows and knows that he knows is a wise man; follow him. Attributions: Persian apothegm, Sanskrit Saying
I have that one quote right in front of me on my first teacher oriented gift from my dh:wub: "Students don't care how much you know as a teacher until they know how much you care about them" My other favorite, so much that it closes my portfolio is by Richard Bach: "Learning is finding out what you already know. Doing is demonstrating that you know it. Teaching is reminding others that they know it as well as you do...therefore we are all learners, doers and teachers."
Another that opens my portfolio: Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee" Ralph Waldo Emerson
My favorite, obviously, is my signature line. I also like teachergroupie's signature.... Education is not what you know, it's what you can do (or fake intelligently) with what you know. I have actually quoted that to my students more times than I can count.
Thank you, my dear, and you're more than welcome to it. One can't fake intelligently without a reasonable grasp of the really fundamental principles.
Exactly, TG...that's what I'm trying to get across to my students. They ask frequently how I know so much, and I've asked them if they've ever caught on to the fact that I will bluff from time to time, change the subject, then come back to whatever it was later on when I've looked up the information. They never caught on until I pointed it out. They never realized that I know just enough to fake it until I can figure it out for real. This is, of course, not in the subject I teach, but in side discussions that happen on a fairly regular basis.
Richard Bach wrote a book called "The Gift of Wings" which contains over three dozen short stories. Many of the stories are about his experiences in teaching or fictional accounts of ideal teaching environments. It is one of my favorite books. Originally published in 1974, it is still in print and available at book bookstores as a paperback.
I actually have an educational quotes site bookmarked because I love them so much. Here is another favorite of mine. "How is it that little children are so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be education that does it."
One that I made up... "The common sense in us, will enlighten us about; when to say or use anything that is worth the while of those, who are placed in our care." R1 Another one that I like... "All I really need to know, I learned in Kindergarten." The book... I was given this book by my children AND sad to say, "I never finished it & can't find it, to finish it." Rebel1
And then Woody Allen changed it to "Those who can do, those who can't teach and those that can't teach, teach gym". Of course that is bogus to me but still funny.
My favorite quote about working with middle schoolers is.. "Arguing with a middle school student is like wrestling a pig in the mud, the pig loves it and all you get is dirty."
"In the first place, God made idiots; that was for practice. Then he made school boards." Mark Twain.
Loved that czacza! One other, "It's easier to stay out of trouble than it is to get out of trouble." Mark Twain And, of course the one I'm using right now in my signature.
I have a couple of favorite educational quotes. Both of them are by former Challenger astronaut and teacher Christa McAuliffe "I touch the future, I teach." "I have a vision of the world as a global village, a world without boundaries. Imagine a history teacher making history!" I especially like the second one because it's my dream to become a secondary hsitory teacher someday just like Christa. I admt it'd be nice to be history teacher in space, but I doubt a program like that would come up ever again.
I put that quote under my contact info on my resume. Several people at the job fair said they thought it was a nice touch I was careful to make sure the quote was in the same font style so it's understated. My fave is "To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world." I'm not sure where it comes from.
My favorite is from Cris Tovani: "School should not be a place where young people go to watch old people work."
I post fifty quotations every Saturday, if anyone else likes to collect quotations. You can go to my archives and dig up all the Quotation Saturday posts.
Courage Courage doesn't always roar~sometimes courage is the small voice inside you that says "I will try again tomorrow" This is a favorite of mine. I find it especially appropriate for those days when your lesson plan pretty much sucked, and the students were bored and didn't understand. But, you had envisioned it going so much better than what it actually did (and even lost sleep thinking about how great it was going to be). I've been there....and this quote has come to mind many times, which is why I went back for more the next day with the attitude that I learned something from it and next time it will be better.
