Teaching Philosophy Millicent Powell I believe that my job as a teacher goes beyond teaching math in a classroom.

While it is important that I am contributing to each students academic achievement, the responsibilities of being a positive role model and mentor to my students accompany being a teacher. It is my goal to instill in them the personal values of hard work, creativity, and responsibility towards themselves and others through my interactions with the students. My job as a teacher goes beyond rigorously teaching mathematics and getting through curriculum. It is just as important for me to instruct the students using a variety of creative, engaging, and applicable strategies. Culture A significant part of my teaching philosophy focuses on creating a classroom environment that includes all students and acts as a safe place. The teacher is the facilitator of the classroom and must create boundaries that are sensitive to students needs and cultural backgrounds. A teacher cannot obtain respect if the student does not feel accepted by their peers and the teacher doesnt at some level trust the students. I believe that when students feel included in the development of their classrooms culture then they feel accepted as part of the greater group. It is important for the boundaries to be respectful of all students needs and create structure for the students. Acceptance opens the door for the students to begin to trust the teacher and for the students to feel comfortable enough to struggle or fail when learning new material. Failure and mistakes are an important part of the learning process because it exercises how to learn and prepares them for life outside of the classroom. Instead of forcing the students to assimilate to a defined classroom culture, the students are able to contribute to the classroom culture. Expectations It is important to set high, but fair standards for the students I instruct. It is my expectation that I can give the students choices and trust them to make the correct decisions because they are aware of the consequences of their actions (whether natural or create by me). Not only must they think of what is best for themselves, they also need to take into account how straying from my expectations could negatively affect others. I also set high standards for myself in the design of my instruction and implementation of my teaching strategies. I believe that my lessons must be applicable to the students lives, inspire them to pursue learning outside of the classroom, and creatively present material with a variety of methods. My lessons should illustrate to students the relevance of mathematics in other areas of their lives. Their view of the world will evolve as they learn how mathematics applies to their lives and exists within and around them. The students will leave my classroom with an appreciation for the interdisciplinary presence of mathematics. I hold expectations for myself that reach beyond my ability to teach about mathematics. Through my interactions with the students, I model the values of hard work in place of laziness, patience in place of anger, empathy in place of judgment, and responsibility in place of dependency. My expectations for how I conduct myself within my classroom are just as important as my

expectations for my students. I cannot expect my students to live up to the expectations that I set for them, if I cannot control my own behavior and thoughts. I must focus my energy on the betterment of my classroom and constantly looking for instances to exhibit ethical behavior for my students. Discipline Logical consequences and consistency are the most important aspects of discipline. In order to have true consistency in my classroom, I, as the teacher, must hold myself to the same standards and receive equivalent consequences if I lose control of my own actions. It is important for the teacher to decide ahead of time which behaviors can be overlooked and which behaviors must be corrected. Focusing my efforts on too minimal of behaviors is a waste of effort that could be spent addressing greater and more important information. My goal with discipline is to help students become responsible and confident individuals who think for them-selves and are able to weigh the consequences and benefits of a situation. I believe that if a student violates a core rule of the classroom or school, the consequence must be appropriately assigned. Every experience should be treated as a learning experience for the students. I believe that punishment teaches students to get away with breaking a rule. So instead of punishing the student with an unrelated act, I prefer a system of logical rewards and consequences that are related to their actions. Along with the logical consequence, I think it is important for me as the teacher to approach their misstep with a calm and empathetic demeanor and discuss with the student why they made their decision and how they could fix it in the future. This helps the student learn how to assess the positives and negatives associated with their own choices.

Curriculum and Strategy Curriculum defines what is to be taught in a classroom, while the strategies define how it will be taught. Curriculum and teaching strategy have a part in defining each other. Without curriculum, strategies lack the material to make them meaningful. Curriculum is the foundation on which teachers build their lesson, unit, and yearly plans. Mathematics is a vast network of connected conceptual and procedural knowledge that has the ability to explain much of the phenomena that explain our world. Without curriculum that has been developed with sequence in mind, it is all too easy for a teacher to miss important information or distribute class time inefficiently. Without teaching strategies, the curriculum neither engages the students nor relates to their interests or personal lives. It is important to engage the students through using a variety of creative and interesting strategies. If the students are not engaged with the material and do not see any value in it, they will not put the effort into learning the material. Multiple strategies should be used in each lesson to keep the students focused and encourage them to interpret information in new ways. Without engagement, learning will not take place. So, it is especially important for the strategies to help differentiate the curriculum to meet the students at each of their readiness levels and applying to their previous knowledge.