When I think back to teachers that I have admired over time, I have noticed that they share common characteristics in the way they teach, including the following: having a passion for what they are teaching, engaging students throughout the lesson and taking time either before, during lunch or after school for students in case they have any questions or do not understand a concept. The common characteristics that teachers I have admired have, has been integrated into my teaching philosophy.
Everyone is different, that statement seems basic but it is a part of my philosophy because knowing that will help me as a teacher. For instance, every student is different. They will learn through a variety of teaching strategies and learning styles. I think guided notes can be good for certain lessons and cater to a few different learning styles. For instance, I used guided notes in a bibliography lesson. Students can be engaged during the lesson because some things were already on their notes but they had to copy some things down as I talked. Guided notes are good for kinesthetic learners, auditory learners and visual learners. If students do not understand something that is done in class, I want them to know that they could get help before, during lunch or after school.
Another part of my philosophy is that things change and I cannot stop it from happening. For example, things like schools, teaching, and the students will change in the following ways: I may be teaching a class multiple times, but that does not mean the lesson plans will always be the same. They should be changing from year to year because some lesson plans will work better than others. For instance, I taught the same lesson twice this year but the first lesson plan was different from the second lesson plan. Sometimes curriculum changes and I have to be ready to adapt to a new curriculum. For instance, they might come out with a new math curriculum that I will need to teach. Also, my teaching strategies will change as time goes on. I will learn things and realize what does and does not work. Finally, the way students learn is changing every year. For instance, I believe that the learning is focused on different ways of getting to the answer and learning how the answer is obtained, and in the past it is more focused on just getting the answer.
I think math is amazing, I enjoy finding the integral, taking the derivative, factoring polynomials and many other things. All my life I have had a love of math. The final thing I will talk about is having a passion for what I am teaching. I realize that there will be students who hate math and therefore might be difficult for some students to learn math. However, when they see the passion I have for math while I am providing instructions it can influence students because they can see why I have such an appreciation for the subject. Hopefully I can inspire students to enjoy learning about math.
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