My Mathematical Teaching Philosophy 

            The three main principles that I want to exhibit in my math classroom; are 1) creating a lesson that is based uponreal-life situations; 2) creating a lesson that allows fordifferentiating those lessons; 3) and being able to relateto the students in a personal matter.  I want students learning something that they will be able to use in real world situations and be able to relate it themselves.  When the lessons are something that the students can relate to, it allows them to make significant connections with the material and create deeper learning.  I included differentiating lessons because it allows students to work at their own level with the intention to have it scaffold to have the lesson goal covered.  I want to be able to relate to the students, they need to know that me as their teacher can understand the misconceptions and mathematical ideas going through their minds.  Students in the classroom should not be involved in the same type of lesson every day or else they will become bored and disengaged with the class as a whole.

            With my experiences of math classes, the ones that I was able to relate to the easiest allowed me to retain the most information.  In other classes, I may have learned more but the material did not stay with me because it did not matter to me.  I know that my lessons will not always be relevant for everyone.  However, a couple way that I can have a better idea of who my students are; by asking my students to fill out a notecard that answers questions about themselves; along with a paper that has them write up their mathematical history as a student.  

            I want the students in my classroom to be challenged daily and in order to keep the high achieving studentsactive in the class I need to create problems that will challenge them to think.  The students that complete their work before the rest of the class are sometimes given “busy work” so they do not act out.  In my opinion, that is being reactive as a teacher rather than being proactive and making them a better student.  The work can be organized in the manner such that the different worksheets all have the same answers but the problems take different routes to the answer.

              Overall, I want my classroom to be one that is organized and designed in a manner such that the students are exploring concepts on their own.  I do not want them to have to rely upon me to explain all of the problems laid out in my lesson plan.  The lessons need to focus on the students so everyone in the class has a reason to be engagedwith both the lesson and the class as a whole.  With these principles, my students will cover the needs of a student and allow them to expand their knowledge in the most positive manner possible.