Mr. Ho's Teaching Goals

Mr. Ho's teaching goals are to:

• provide all students with in-depth explanations of all mathematical concepts and ideas through different teaching approaches (e.g., direct instruction, group work activities, explorative learning activities using learning tools such as Desmos app, manipulatives, math games, etc.) that would help them make sense of math,

• encourage, appreciate, and value all students to use different ways to solve math problems,

• incorporate a variety of high impact instructional practices (e.g., direct instruction, Dr. Peter Liljedahl's Building Thinking Classrooms teaching method, the use of learning goals, success criteria, and descriptive feedback, etc.) into day-to-day teaching to try to reach all students of different needs in the classroom,

• have students work in different groups in each class using visibly randomized grouping so that they will have opportunities to learn with their classmates of different cultural, socioeconomic, and academic backgrounds and share learning ideas and experiences with each other,

• increase student interactions with one another and the teacher by encouraging math talk, student collaboration, and questioning techniques that would foster deeper mathematical thinking and learning,

• collaborate with Math teachers to develop lessons and assessments that are at each student's zone of proximal development (e.g., creating parallel tasks and allowing students to choose the one they are ready to work on),

• work with teachers in different departments to co-plan and co-develop activities with the use of technology that would create "excitement" in student learning,

• carefully design and plan math lessons that are student-centered with a focus on problem-solving and thinking, rather than only recall of procedures,

• motivate more students to participate in Math contests in order to create, maintain, and strengthen the culture of academic excellence in Mathematics at LPCI,

• develop a positive math culture in the classroom where all students enjoy math time, communicate mathematically during math time, are actively engaged in the assigned class work, ask questions that would deepen their understanding of math, always expect and accept math challenges, and never talk about math being "hard" and "boring,"

• encourage students to be active learners who choose and determine their own path of learning, rather than being passive notetakers whose path of learning is determined by the teacher and/or others,

• have faith in students that they will eventually become independent and creative problem solvers who always keep trying to learn and solve problems and never give up even if they run into obstacles, and

• have fun with students and see them smiling when they are walking into and out of the Math classroom every day.