When I was younger, I never took interested in being a teacher because I did not enjoy the teachers I had. As I encountered more different types of teacher and had come across Aristotle’s saying “Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.”, it just hit me hard that I have to be a teacher one day. Since I’ve had a lot of experiences being a student, not only I “understand” how a student would feel, but also, I have quite an “understanding” on my content area. Since I do not “know” Math on an expert level, I am more comfortable delivering my understanding of it to others. I “understand” how difficult it is to learn Math as it did not come easy to me, too. I was never that good at Math, that’s why I will “understand” the students’ struggles and try my best to encourage them to learn. Hopefully, I will be able to show them by not giving up and working hard, everyone can overcome all learning challenges just like I did.
My teaching approach is to create a nurturing and supportive classroom space based on respect, trust and positive relationships between the teacher and students, etc. I decided to take on this approach as I strongly agree to Jim Henson’s famous quote “[Kids] don’t remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.” And I did experience this many times throughout my student career. I remembered how my teachers treated me more vividly than what they tried to teach me. I remembered feeling prejudiced by many of my teachers; and very few of them cared about my situations outside of the classroom. I plan to never give up on any of my students. If my students do not make any learning progress, I won’t expect them to be the only one changing, I will also change to cater to my students’ needs.
Therefore, my philosophy of teaching is to focus on students’ wellbeing. As a teacher, I plan to minimize the bad experiences I’ve had as a student for my students. My goal is to create a learning environment where I will try to support and push my students out of their comfort zone to achieve their fullest potentials. I will also try my best to inspire my students to explore every possible option for their lives and teach them how stand up for their choices. I want to become the 4th type of teacher in William Arthur Ward’s teaching philosophy – “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”
References:
Borden, A. J. (2015, March 12). My Teaching Philosophy. Retrieved November 15, 2017, from http://www.jborden.com/my-teaching-philosophy/
Quotes About Teaching (1100 quotes). (n.d.). Retrieved November 15, 2017, from https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/teaching
Anna Phan 