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Philosophy of Teaching Mathematics
When teaching mathematics, the first thing you want to accomplish is to have a great relationship with your students. Being able to establish a sense of trust and comfort in the classroom will always improve student learning and engagement in the material being taught. With this being said, my philosophy of teaching math is based firmly on this relationship. I can say for myself that having a teacher who is always encouraging their students and constantly giving back to the class, always made the learning process more meaningful and interesting.
My philosophy of teaching math is also to have the student constantly engaged in the material being taught. Having a teacher who consistently lectures and has their students comprehend the material by just note taking is not something that will occur in my classroom. Whether it is by having my students complete problems using the SMART board, cooperative learning, games, or even just asking and answering questions, there will always be student involvement. I firmly believe that material is retained more often than not if they are using hands on learning.
Another aspect on my philosophy of teaching math would be to relate the material being taught in the class to real life situations. Wanting to teach secondary mathematics, I think this is especially important to include this in your weekly lessons. Since I will be teaching to older students it will be found that many of them will be getting their license around this time. An example such that they have to figure out a monthly car payment plan allows them to use interest rates and complex fractions to figure different scenarios and situations as how to use their money. By taking an example as simple as this, it puts it into perspective that this material pertains to their lives and they can use it to solve many different types of mathematical problems.
Another aspect of my teaching that I firmly believe in is to never give up on a student. It happens often that we hear students say “I hate math”. I know this occurs because I used to be one of them. It was not until I had a teacher who took the material being taught and turned it into something so relatable and understandable that she completely changed my outlook on math. This is what makes me want to be a math teacher. Being able to show my students that you can take some of the material that you think could be the most impossible thing in the world and by taking steps and working together you can figure it out.
Math is all around us whether we realize it or not and by being able to teach students to open their eyes and see it too, is something that I can not wait to achieve.
When teaching mathematics, the first thing you want to accomplish is to have a great relationship with your students. Being able to establish a sense of trust and comfort in the classroom will always improve student learning and engagement in the material being taught. With this being said, my philosophy of teaching math is based firmly on this relationship. I can say for myself that having a teacher who is always encouraging their students and constantly giving back to the class, always made the learning process more meaningful and interesting.
My philosophy of teaching math is also to have the student constantly engaged in the material being taught. Having a teacher who consistently lectures and has their students comprehend the material by just note taking is not something that will occur in my classroom. Whether it is by having my students complete problems using the SMART board, cooperative learning, games, or even just asking and answering questions, there will always be student involvement. I firmly believe that material is retained more often than not if they are using hands on learning.
Another aspect on my philosophy of teaching math would be to relate the material being taught in the class to real life situations. Wanting to teach secondary mathematics, I think this is especially important to include this in your weekly lessons. Since I will be teaching to older students it will be found that many of them will be getting their license around this time. An example such that they have to figure out a monthly car payment plan allows them to use interest rates and complex fractions to figure different scenarios and situations as how to use their money. By taking an example as simple as this, it puts it into perspective that this material pertains to their lives and they can use it to solve many different types of mathematical problems.
Another aspect of my teaching that I firmly believe in is to never give up on a student. It happens often that we hear students say “I hate math”. I know this occurs because I used to be one of them. It was not until I had a teacher who took the material being taught and turned it into something so relatable and understandable that she completely changed my outlook on math. This is what makes me want to be a math teacher. Being able to show my students that you can take some of the material that you think could be the most impossible thing in the world and by taking steps and working together you can figure it out.
Math is all around us whether we realize it or not and by being able to teach students to open their eyes and see it too, is something that I can not wait to achieve.