During my time teaching abroad during the last 12 years I've lived and taught in some truly wild situations. Seeing different school systems in different countries reminded me of how much I disliked learning as a student in school. It made me realize how I wanted to learn as a student: having a partnership with my teachers were they were they acted as guides to my developing critical thinking skills. This would have allowed me to discover things on my own terms rather than being told the answers to everything. As an avid reader, I always valued the knowledge I acquired through my own study. I valued the hard work I put into it and cherished those accomplishments more. A teacher should really be a partner in a student's studies who asks questions that point the student in the right direction to figure out a problem on their own. That is my teaching philosophy in a nutshell. If a student wants a guide through the fog of academic study, then I'm happy to lend a hand in that pursuit.