My Teaching Philosophy
I believe that students will learn best when they are motivated to learn. As a teacher, part of my role is to get students excited about mathematics. I believe that students will succeed when they take responsibility for their own learning, which is most likely to happen when students explore the mathematics themselves. As a teacher, this can be assisted by promoting autonomy in the classroom. While I learned mathematics in a very traditional way, I have come to believe that teaching mathematics with a task-based curriculum can be extremely beneficial for students.
I also believe that making mistakes is a vital part of learning mathematics. Unless a student is willing to make mistakes and push their boundaries, very little actual learning will take place. My goal as a math educator is to create an environment where my students feel comfortable making mistakes and are willing to learn from those mistakes. Jo Boaler describes some of the benefits of mistakes, even when students don't recognize they are making them, in her book Mathematical Mindsets.
I also believe that making mistakes is a vital part of learning mathematics. Unless a student is willing to make mistakes and push their boundaries, very little actual learning will take place. My goal as a math educator is to create an environment where my students feel comfortable making mistakes and are willing to learn from those mistakes. Jo Boaler describes some of the benefits of mistakes, even when students don't recognize they are making them, in her book Mathematical Mindsets.
My Assessment Philosophy
Traditional and standardized testing fall extremely short of my ideals of assessment. I believe that assessments should accurately and dynamically show a student's progress in both understanding and ability of mathematics. A true assessment, in my mind, will allow a teacher to understand a students' strengths, weaknesses, and current mathematical ability. In my experience, high stakes assessments do not give accurate information. I would prefer to give a variety of low stake assessments to my students to help them and me understand what we need to work on further.
In my opinion, assessments are easiest to understand and analyze when they are straight forward, learning driven, and have sections of varying levels of difficulty. I have always disliked tests that are meant to trick students, and feel that tests that are designed that way never actually test understanding. I prefer a straight forward approach where students are given a problem and asked to solve in any correct way. This allows students the opportunity to problem solve and engage in mathematical processes. Since this is a major part of what I want my students to experience as math students, this assessment style will help meet my students meet their learning goals.
In my opinion, assessments are easiest to understand and analyze when they are straight forward, learning driven, and have sections of varying levels of difficulty. I have always disliked tests that are meant to trick students, and feel that tests that are designed that way never actually test understanding. I prefer a straight forward approach where students are given a problem and asked to solve in any correct way. This allows students the opportunity to problem solve and engage in mathematical processes. Since this is a major part of what I want my students to experience as math students, this assessment style will help meet my students meet their learning goals.
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