What I Believe In...
When considering any aspect of education, the most important thing to consider is the student.
Effective teaching stems from the teacher’s ability to build relationships with their students. When I tell people that I am a mathematics major at the University of Illinois and plan to become a high school Math teacher, most reply’s are along the lines of: “Oh, why?” or “Oh, I am so bad at Math.” After people explain their distaste or inability to do math, they always bring up the fact that they had an amazing mathematics teacher or even sometimes one they didn't like. These conversations show me that teachers make an incredible impact on students that 10, 20, or even 30 years later they still remember the positives and negatives of their math teachers. I truly believe that the students’ success in your classroom largely correlates with how they feel when they are sitting in your classroom. Do they feel wanted? Noticed? Engaged? Important? Confident? Or do they feel invisible or disliked? These feelings carry over into their work and can largely affect their effort or motivation in your classroom.
Through my experiences at the University of Illinois I was fortunate to spend over 90 hours teaching in diverse classrooms. Because of this and through my student teaching at Elk Grove High School, I have learned and witnessed that regardless of language barriers, cultural differences, or socioeconomic backgrounds, each student has the ability to learn if they are given the opportunity. As a teacher, it is important to appeal to the wide range of students in your classroom in order to maximize the learning in your classroom. For example, one lesson you might show a short video clip to help students understand a concept, you might use a dynamic software, such as Geogebra, to allow students to use manipulative and complete and activity, or you may demonstrate a few examples before allowing students to practice on their own.
The environment of the classroom is extremely important to learning and building relationships with students. Students must feel that the classroom, teacher, and peers provide a safe place to voice their mathematical ideas and conjectures. In addition to the learning environment, attitude towards the content is extremely important to learning. No one would be expected to learn if they have continuously been told that they are not capable of learning mathematics and have accepted that failure. From day one, you must fight the battle and show that what they are learning is important and that each and every student truly has the ability to succeed.
Albert Einstein once said, “Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” And this is the mentality I think teachers and administrators should take when they are evaluating their students. As a teacher, I must provide opportunities for students to shine and demonstrate their learning and growth. Technology is a great way to advance student engagement in the classroom, promote collaborative learning, and provide students with another way to show their ability to learn and grow. With technology, students are able to investigate concepts in a new way and come up with new conjectures about topics. In addition, many things become more efficient and modern. For example, students could complete worksheets and packets using a stylus pen on the iPad or students can investigate trigonometric functions on Geogebra.
One of the best things about being a math teacher is the endless opportunity we have to teach students something new. We have the ability to not only teach fundamental mathematics but also teach them how to find new ways to solve a problem, new and different ways to communicate their mathematical ideas, and confidently take a stance and argue their methods. Being a math teacher is a wonderful way to impact students’ lives and truly teach them things that will help them become better, smarter, more intelligent thinkers in the future as well as provide them with tools to accept, appreciate, and learn from people and ideas that may be new or unfamiliar.
Effective teaching stems from the teacher’s ability to build relationships with their students. When I tell people that I am a mathematics major at the University of Illinois and plan to become a high school Math teacher, most reply’s are along the lines of: “Oh, why?” or “Oh, I am so bad at Math.” After people explain their distaste or inability to do math, they always bring up the fact that they had an amazing mathematics teacher or even sometimes one they didn't like. These conversations show me that teachers make an incredible impact on students that 10, 20, or even 30 years later they still remember the positives and negatives of their math teachers. I truly believe that the students’ success in your classroom largely correlates with how they feel when they are sitting in your classroom. Do they feel wanted? Noticed? Engaged? Important? Confident? Or do they feel invisible or disliked? These feelings carry over into their work and can largely affect their effort or motivation in your classroom.
Through my experiences at the University of Illinois I was fortunate to spend over 90 hours teaching in diverse classrooms. Because of this and through my student teaching at Elk Grove High School, I have learned and witnessed that regardless of language barriers, cultural differences, or socioeconomic backgrounds, each student has the ability to learn if they are given the opportunity. As a teacher, it is important to appeal to the wide range of students in your classroom in order to maximize the learning in your classroom. For example, one lesson you might show a short video clip to help students understand a concept, you might use a dynamic software, such as Geogebra, to allow students to use manipulative and complete and activity, or you may demonstrate a few examples before allowing students to practice on their own.
The environment of the classroom is extremely important to learning and building relationships with students. Students must feel that the classroom, teacher, and peers provide a safe place to voice their mathematical ideas and conjectures. In addition to the learning environment, attitude towards the content is extremely important to learning. No one would be expected to learn if they have continuously been told that they are not capable of learning mathematics and have accepted that failure. From day one, you must fight the battle and show that what they are learning is important and that each and every student truly has the ability to succeed.
Albert Einstein once said, “Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” And this is the mentality I think teachers and administrators should take when they are evaluating their students. As a teacher, I must provide opportunities for students to shine and demonstrate their learning and growth. Technology is a great way to advance student engagement in the classroom, promote collaborative learning, and provide students with another way to show their ability to learn and grow. With technology, students are able to investigate concepts in a new way and come up with new conjectures about topics. In addition, many things become more efficient and modern. For example, students could complete worksheets and packets using a stylus pen on the iPad or students can investigate trigonometric functions on Geogebra.
One of the best things about being a math teacher is the endless opportunity we have to teach students something new. We have the ability to not only teach fundamental mathematics but also teach them how to find new ways to solve a problem, new and different ways to communicate their mathematical ideas, and confidently take a stance and argue their methods. Being a math teacher is a wonderful way to impact students’ lives and truly teach them things that will help them become better, smarter, more intelligent thinkers in the future as well as provide them with tools to accept, appreciate, and learn from people and ideas that may be new or unfamiliar.