My philosophy of education is important to me as a future teacher since it will be the foundation for how I will run my classroom. I believe the purpose of education is to further students in academic knowledge and positively guide them as they grow as an individual. Education is more than learning facts and methods; it plays a vital role in shaping what students want to achieve in their life after school. In my classroom, I desire my students to leave with a positive outlook on education. The purpose of education is to create an environment where students can expand their limits of growth and never stop growing. The best way to achieve this growth is through a positive environment in the classroom and having a positive mindset as a teacher which will lead my students to achieve things, they did not think were possible at the start of the year. Positivity will help remove the limits and walls that students set up for themselves when learning math. My main goal as a high school math teacher is for my students to leave the classroom with a positive attitude toward math. Positivity towards math is not about being good at it but coming to class with a positive mindset ready to learn and striving towards improvement and understanding of mathematical terms. I have chosen education because I strongly desire that students see how great math is and believe it is possible to have every student enjoy something related to math. As an educator, I want to have an impact on my students not only academically but also push them to grow as a person in their outlook towards life.
My philosophy of education will be shown in my classroom in several ways. Since I want my students to have a positive attitude about math, my voice will be upbeat and filled with positivity when I am talking about math. On homework, I will phrase my feedback in positive ways and point out what the students did well to build their confidence in their work. To support good attitudes toward math I will show my students how math connects to specific students’ hobbies or other areas they may be interested in. My students can expect me to be involved in their life and attend some of their extra-curricular activities. I will respect each of my students and establish an open and honest relationship with them. Students can expect to come to me for help, and I will establish times of availability, so they can feel comfortable asking for help. Also, as a teacher, I plan to grow and develop myself by taking different classes and webinars mainly about social-emotional topics. This way I can learn new ways to establish positive outlooks in my classroom. As a new teacher, I am open to having a mentor whom I could go to for help and learn from their experience.
As my students can expect me to respect them, I will also expect them to have respect for me. Respect will be an important theme in my classroom. I will expect my students to respect each other, the teacher, and the time we have together. At the beginning of the year, I will make it clear to my students what I expect from them throughout the year and continue to remind them as the year goes on through a weekly email or post on the software/website the school uses. In a classroom, I believe having an open and honest relationship is important. I desire that my students leave my classroom feeling accomplished because they have grown in their math skills and achieved great things no matter how small because they made a step forward, which is important. The biggest takeaway I want my students to leave my class with is a positive attitude toward math.