All students can learn and are a vital part of the learning community
There are no stupid questions in my class. In the course that I teach, IB Theory of Knowledge, the entire premise is to investigate and examine the fundamentals of knowing.
Questions like "what do you know and how do you know it?" are asked everyday. So when students ask questions that they "should" know the answer too by the time that they are 17 or 18 years old, I don't shame them, I just think that no one has taught them yet.
One of the main assessments that I teach in the Extended Essay, which is a 4,000 word independently written research paper that is on a topic of their choosing, and after working with students for almost 2 years, it's wonderful to see how much they have grown as people and in their abilities to dissect and understand knowledge.
From my first Journal entry from May of 2024, I said the following:
"When you hold your students to high expectations and hold them accountable, they will succeed."
And I ended my entry with this anecdote: I took away the message that teachers need to believe in their students so that their students can believe in themselves, but I would also argue that teachers need to believe in themselves and their abilities before they can effectively believe in their students. I think that's why Mr. Kappler(my engineering teacher from high school) was so important to me as a teacher. You could tell he was confident in himself and his abilities, and with that confidence, he was able to believe in his students and help them grow.
I also think that if I am confident and trust in ability to be a vital part of my students community, I more effectively ensure that they also can be a vital part of their learning community.