Teaching Philosophy
Doug Robeson
Philosophy:
As far as teaching goes, the teacher's job is to present the content of
the course in a way that the students can grasp the meaning of the
subject. Then the teacher should reinforce the content through
examples and exercises. It's always nice to have exciting and
meaningful examples that the students can relate to, but this is not
always the case with a subject like math. I see myself as an
explainer first and as a facilitator second--explain the concept and
then facilitate higher order thinking.
It is important that the subject and the teacher make sense to the
students. If the students do not understand the teacher or the
subject, learning it becomes more difficult. My job is to present
the information in a way that all my students will comprehend, and
perhaps develop a personal interest in the area. The more of an
interest the students develop in the area, the easier it is for them to
learn the subject. Some students are motivated solely by grades,
others are not as easily motivated, and that is where my job comes in
as a teacher. A teacher needs to be able to go above and beyond
the call of duty to reach a child.
Finally, a teacher should be a friend to the students. A teacher
needs to be someone the students feel they can talk to if they do not
understand or if they just need someone to talk to about
anything. A teacher is a role-model to their students and should
behave in a professional manner to foster responsibility in their
students. Lastly, a teacher needs to be involved with the school
in ways that will help them to motivate their students and
colleagues--such as coaching sports or sponsoring clubs.
Teaching
Style:
K.I.S.S.
While taking engineering classes during my first two years at college,
the biggest idea that was impressed upon up-and-coming engineering
students was KISS–or, as the engineering professors told us, Keep It
Simple Students (or there was another word that was sometimes
substituted for students, but I like to think of it this way). As
a math teacher, the structure of my class would be to present notes on
a subject or concept, followed by examples of the concept--whether it
be problems or real world relations, followed by a homework
assignment. Doing problems is the best way to learn how to do
math. Homework is the best method to get the students to do
problems, aside from quizzes and tests--which are very important for
assessment purposes. Homework, in most cases, serves as an extra
boost in the grade book as well. The beginning of every class
period should start with going over previous homework.
Sometimes it's unavoidable to have notes that aren't the most exciting
on earth. That's why it's important to spice things up
sometimes. At least once a week I would like to incorporate
meaningful experiments, uses, or concepts regarding the current
classroom topic. I would like to present these experiments in a
way that the students could interact and come to their own conclusions
and derive their own theorems on the subject matter. One job of a
teacher is not to just create mindless entities that will sit quietly
and do their work all the time. Students need to become virtuous
people. By virtuous students, I mean intelligent students that
are capable of preforming actions when necessary, also knowing when
it's necessary to take action.
Unfortunately not everyone shares the love of math that I have.
Math is beautiful and is not just formulas and equations, it's a way of
thinking. This way of thinking is a powerful tool if it can be
grasped. I plan on doing everything in my power to help students
to grasp this idea. But for those who are not interested and do
not want to make the effort to become interested, I have camouflaged
extra assignments which normally wouldn't be even considered for math
classes. Book reports! I know, book reports are for English
classes. But most great mathematical minds were also
writers--Einstein, Voltaire, Decartes, Newton, Socrates, Capernicus,
Galileo, etc. These writers are almost always skipped over in English
and social studies classes. These men played very important roles
in history, which can be useful to learn about. These book reports
could be easy extra credit grades for students that don't always
understand the concepts or for students that unknowingly make lots of
little mistakes, which is common in the field of math.
Classroom participation is very much encouraged. Unfortunately,
especially in a high school environment, class participation is not
high on the list of students favorite things to do. That's why
it's important to establish an affable environment for the
students. An easy going attitude and infinite patience is a must
for any teacher. Students have to feel comfortable talking to
teachers or they won't participate in class. That's why it's
important to establish an authoritarian way of teaching--not just
answering questions with "because I said so", but giving reasoning
behind answers. Keeping classroom control is also very important
to having a favorable learning environment. I know from personal
experience that it's not easy to learn when a few students on the side
of the room are just carrying on a conversation off topic; or, if
students in the back of the room are having a paper ball fight and the
teacher just keeps lecturing like nothing is wrong. Control has
to be kept, either through respect, punishment, or both.
I also believe in rewarding students for their good work in somewhat
unorthodox ways. For instance, I recently told both of my
sections for Calculus 2 for Advanced Placement Students that if one of
their sections averaged the highest grade on the test out of all of the
sections in the class then I would come to class the next day with a
Mohawk. The next Tuesday, I showed up to class with an enormous
amount of gel in my hair to hold up the Mohawk. I told them they
could pick what embarrassment happens to me if they do the best on the
next test and both classes were very excited about what they could make
me do–excited to learn Calculus!
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