Being a student that doesn’t believe in themselves and has not had much academic success is even harder. Being a student that is labeled as a “low-performing, not meeting standards” makes someone want to give up. I was considered one of those students, labeled as remedial and considered as ‘hopeless’, for lack of a better term. Through guidance from my educator and her belief that I could do so much more than what was labeled for me, I grew as a student and a person to advocate for my own learning through hard work and perseverance. For me, my teaching philosophy is simple: I would like to become the teacher that I needed the most.
I believe that to be a successful teacher, students need to have an educator that is willing to take the time and effort to push students for growth with a structure that isn’t too constricting nor too freeing. Math has always been a tough subject for many students that I have encountered; some of the students I have encountered believe that math is one or the other: you either get it or don’t. However, math, in my opinion, is a language that can be learned and to learn it, the educator needs to know how to give their time and effort for students at any level of their education. Students are capable of having strong mathematical literacy when they are required to think critically and in order to do so, a strong supporter that can help them achieve these goals. Students should be able to ask questions, explaining and justifying their arguments, find connections, and other aspects of literacy when they are pushed to do so. A student should feel compelled to jump as high as they can and reach further than what is expected of them—all of which can occur with a willing teacher. I was labeled all of the names that were mentioned in the opening paragraph in Language Arts; while this is not my focus, I know what it feels like to be cast aside because a teacher did not find my chances high when it came to learning. It wasn’t until I had a teacher that actively believed in me, taking that effort and time to make sure that I was successful. She praised my attempts, made me feel like it was alright to make mistakes, and that being victorious was possible. That is a teacher, I feel, spends that time and effort to help their student be successful.
I believe that a safe environment requires a strong and stable relationship between a teacher and their students. Students can fall behind in mathematics if they do not take the leap in asking questions to their instructor. It’s crucial to ask questions, as then students are not left behind and are consistently engaged in their learning. The concern is that many students often will not ask questions in fear of looking less intelligent to their peers, that their question will be perceived as redundant, or perhaps they are merely afraid of speaking aloud in the classroom, especially for students who are from minority communities who fear speaking against their peers. This can subsequently create a growing chasm that will get harder and harder to bridge the bigger the gap gets. I believe that this fear shouldn’t be a barrier between success and struggling–there shouldn’t be a fear at all. Instead, there should be a comfortable relationship between the educator and the students, in which the latter are alright with asking clarifying questions, asking instructions to be repeated, and merely asking for even the sake of just asking! Students should feel comfortable with me and their own peers to feel that they are able to speak aloud and struggle, in a sense, together. By creating a nurturing environment where we can talk about our lives and what we think without judgment, students will be more likely to speak up.
For explicit learning, however, I believe that standards are not everything in teaching. While it is a road map and a useful tool in understanding where students should be in their learning, it does not encompass the entirety of the learning experience. The learning experience consists of the world as a whole, which has the human experience of interaction, communication, and constant improvement. The world is not a right or wrong experience, but rather something that will require perseverance and the desire to improve; in my experience, students are more inclined to engage with us when they are able to feel like they can move in their own pace, that they are competent even if the material isn’t clicking with them yet, and they are allowed to make mistakes that won’t downgrade the perception others have of them or their own. The standards are so concrete that there isn’t legroom to be able to encourage students to improve in their understanding, which is something I do not agree with.
I believe that assessments do not merely consist of a grade on a test. Assessment should constantly be occurring within the classroom through student participation, questioning, and even how they communicate with their peers on the subject topic at hand. Math shouldn’t be a quiet subject in which students are expected to learn quietly without engagement; I believe that math should be taught with the encouragement to take risks and engage with each other. This is an assessment that should be utilized more often; something that will be in my own classroom.
Finally, it is my hope that I will be the educator that I wish I had back in high school. Once I become that teacher, I will not be perfect and will always be growing in learning new techniques or encountering different experiences that I may have never seen before, but I will be an educator that I hope will inspire those I teach.