Philosophy of Teaching
Over the past 6 weeks I have began forming my philosophy of teaching.
Teachers have the responsibility and honor of influencing today’s youth and this is a privilege I do not take lightly. I will accept this responsibility and do everything in my power to foster students’ interests and passions. It is my duty to expand my teaching beyond the curriculum, and to work in conjunction with the school in order to prepare students for a successful future. I believe I have begun forming a set of values that will foster my aspirations for my students and enable their success. My values and beliefs will be tweaked over, and over again throughout my career, but the foundation will stay the same and my methods and practices will be ever evolving.
Teachers have the responsibility and honor of influencing today’s youth and this is a privilege I do not take lightly. I will accept this responsibility and do everything in my power to foster students’ interests and passions. It is my duty to expand my teaching beyond the curriculum, and to work in conjunction with the school in order to prepare students for a successful future. I believe I have begun forming a set of values that will foster my aspirations for my students and enable their success. My values and beliefs will be tweaked over, and over again throughout my career, but the foundation will stay the same and my methods and practices will be ever evolving.
I believe that one of the most important things, and one of my first acts as a teacher will be to create an inclusive community. These past six weeks have been an incredibly positive experience for me. I think a large contributor to my personal success, as well as the success of my classmates is due to the sense of community that was set-up in our seminar groups. I know that public speaking is an area that I need to stretch. However, after developing a sense of community within our seminar group, my confidence, ability and desire to speak in a group has substantially changed. Without the fear of judgment and the respect held for one another, sharing in class is easier and has inspired me to create a positive and safe environment for my future students. Through building classroom community, students will offer scaffolding for one another, which will promote a positive environment where students feel respected and valued.
Even before I was introduced to the different ways collaboration can be applied to teaching I was a strong believer in collaboration. I have always believed that a group is much more intelligent than any one person within it. Interdisciplinary collaboration is something that really interests me and something I believe schools need to start utilizing. In the real world, content areas are intertwined; it does not make sense to have such rigid boundaries between subjects. I think that by demonstrating cooperation between different content areas, students will have collaboration successfully modeled for them, which also shows perspectives from different backgrounds being equally valued. A great example of collaboration would be weaving literacy across all content areas. In my experience, students always ask math teachers why certain math is applicable to them; I need to develop methods that include real world applications to the subject matter. Otherwise, students will become disconnected, as they do not see the relevance of it in their world. Another positive component of collaboration is the ability to band with fellow teachers to help support students that are at risk or struggling.
Canada is a multicultural country; this should be reflected in our schools. Even if there is no visible diversity within the classroom it is still imperative that classes are conducted in a diverse manner. In my personal high school experience, there was very little cultural diversity, but the teachers that practiced and encouraged open-minded practices helped prepare me for not only post-secondary but also real world experiences. I realize now that the most important lessons my teachers taught me were not about algebra, or geometry, but invaluable life lessons. Teaching diversity also helps engage everyone; if a diverse text set is offered, students are more likely to find something that interests them. Diversity is so expansive that students should have many options for all kinds of learning styles, interests and needs.
Finally, I believe that as an educator my primary job is to be there for my students. In order to achieve this I must be genuine and sincere. As a math teacher, I need to be easily approachable as it can be a very challenging subject for many. To make my classroom a more inclusive community I must strive to make personal connections with my students. Dr. Campbell made a commented that really resonated with. In reference to our practicum placements he stated, “bloom where you are planted.” This quote touched me as I felt it put my practicum and future into perspective. It made me realize that there are a lot of uncertainties and unknown in life, but we are all capable of great things under any circumstances. I plan to remind myself of this quote and hope to inspire my future students to succeed and to bloom where you are planted.