At the beginning of my teaching career, I had a lot of knowledge. I knew the educational jargon and preferred teaching strategies, but what I lacked was the wisdom to use my knowledge effectively. For me, teaching is a lifelong quest to obtain the wisdom necessary to help my students learn. Sometimes this wisdom is evident when I work with the “golden children,” the children destined for success. But most often it comes from “problem children,” those unmotivated, hostile, stubborn children who challenge me to teach them. It’s the “problem students” who get the credit for making me a better teacher. They are the ones who compel me to seek the wisdom necessary for success. They are the ones who challenge me to give my best and they are the ones who give me my greatest satisfaction as a teacher. With the help of these students, I created the three core principles that form the basis of my teaching philosophy. (1) Believe in yourself - believe in your vision - Teaching is hard. Students arrive in class completely unprepared to learn. Parents are not ideal and society has completely unrealistic expectations of teachers. These are just some of the nails that can be used to build a chess school. It's too easy to use these problems as excuses to fail. I believe I have the power to overcome these problems. In my classroom, I am the most important factor in my students' success or failure. I can't overcome what I can't control. When I blame the parents, I give up my control since I cannot change the parents. If I blame society, I give up my control since I cannot change society. If I take responsibility, I maintain control since I can change when they will participate in a simulation or role play. Rather than dreading it, they come to enjoy it. They know that taking risks is part of the learning process and that they have nothing to fear in a classroom where students respect each other and where making mistakes is considered the key to effective learning. I believe learning is fun. I want my students to leave the classroom with a smile. I want us to laugh together every day. I want a classroom where we always take our work seriously but ourselves lightly. When students are actively engaged, the old adage that all students can learn is true. I know teachers who have great lesson plans on paper but whose students are bored and frustrated. The key to my success lies less in my good lesson plans than in my positive attitude towards my students and my subject..