IB Portfolio
Teaching Philosophy
My teaching philosophy aligns with the IB Diploma Programme, with the focus on approaches to teaching and approaches to learning. I teach students through inquiry and concept by introducing project-based learning experiences to promote autonomy and curiosity, and running activities such as mindmap to connect their learning to the mathematical concepts. My teaching also focuses on collaboration and differentiation. I ensure that students build the skills they need to live in a global society such as thinking, communication and self-management so that students can excel in my class and apply the skills to other aspects of their life.
Below is an example of a unit plan and a lesson plan to show my philosophy in use, with approaches to teaching and approaches to learning in mind.
DP Workshop
The IB DP workshop was a perfect opportunity to learn the subject-specific knowledge of the curriculum, such as IA, marking scheme, and toolkits. For example, the instructor provided a sample of an IA and I had a chance to mark the IA using the rubric. Then I compared the results with peers to see how marking standards compare to others. The process was precious because it allowed me to take alternative perspectives on the assessment so that I could better aid my advisor when I helped mark their students' IA's.
Approaches to Teaching: Assessments
My teaching has a heavy focus on various assessments to ensure that both students and I know the level of achievements of the students. Throughout both formative assessments and summative assessments, I give individualized feedback to each student to help their learning and engage students to apply their learning to investigate mathematical relations they can find around the world.
The left-hand side shows an example of such a summative assessment. It helps me as a teacher to understand how well the student is understanding the concept and helps students build the thinking skills and research skills to prepare them for the Internal Assessment.
Approaches to Learning
Thinking Skills: critical thinking and application to unfamiliar contexts
Communication Skills: reflective engagement and discussion both verbally and in writing, to reveal alternative perspectives
Social Skills: classroom discussion to understand the perspective of others and form good relationships
Self-Management Skills: the ability to persevere when a solution is not immediately apparent in challenging goals
Research Skills: mathematical exploration for students to demonstrate their own engagement in areas of interest to them
Learner Profile
IB learner profile represents 10 attributes that help individuals and groups become members of local, national, and global communities. Students who have these attributes are better equipped to continue learning under new circumstances than non-IB students.
The profile that I especially focus on are inquiring, communicator, and caring. Through inquiry-based learning students can acquire new knowledge, share their new discoveries through mathematical communication, and support each other with care and a positive environment.
IB Continuum
IB Continuum consists of four programmes.
Primary Years Programme
Middle Years Programme
Diploma Programme
Career-related Programme
I am a Diploma Programme Mathematics teacher, but also have great interest in other programmes in IB Continuum, as many students come to my classroom with experience with PYP and/or MYP. It is my responsibility to extensively understand their prior learning experience.
IB Resources
IB MATH AI AHL Mind Map.pdfIB MATH AI SL Mind Map.pdfIB MATH AA AHL Mind Map.pdfIB MATH AA SL Mind Map.pdfIB MATH Common Content Mind Map.pdfIB MATH AI Formula Booklet.pdfIB MATH AA Formula Booklet.pdf