My Teaching Philosophy Statement

By: Rebecca Etnyre; Math

What is teaching impactfully? What should students learn and
feel when they leave my classroom each and everyday? When my
students enter and exit my classroom I want them to feel empowered,
strong and loved each and every day. I want them to feel that their
voices can be heard and that their capability level is beyond what they
might of thought it to be. Even though my classroom norms may guide
them to react and move forward in one direction, I want their minds to
be overflowing with math and feel that mathematics is something they
can love and appreciate in more way than one.
When my students view me as a teacher, I want them to feel that
they can trust me; believe me and guide them on the right path to
becoming successful adults, students, and citizens of the world. I want
them to feel that I am fair, consistent and relevant to what they are
learning in the real world and that content is reflected directly with
lessons, activities and assessments that are given. Their stories and
voices should lend guidance as to the direction in which how I teach
the classroom and facilitate active and productive discussions in the
classroom.
I want my students to feel like they are not going to a boring
classroom. I want them to feel that with the support I can provide
them, they will strive to be a mathematician and discoverer of new
ideas and relationships that I may have never found plausible. I want
them to change the world and they way we typically think about
algorithms, postulates, theorems and formulas that have been
engrained into our brains since Kindergarten. By accomplishing tasks
set in place for them in my mathematics classroom, they will go into
the world having a better sense of meaning to mathematics and how
to use it in every way possible. I want them to be explorers,
mathematicians, scientists and thinkers as they progress through my
mathematics classroom.
I want my students to feel that assessments given in the
classroom are fair and meaningful. They should feel that assessments
provide ways to demonstrate mastery and evidence of learning rather
than a superfluous way to provide them with a simple grade. They will
demonstrate mastery through project-based learning, free-writing
assignments and summative assessments given after each unit has
concluded. This will supplement their learning and provide them an
opportunity for self-reflection towards their overall learning goal.
The classroom environment in which my students enter should
feel sacred and safe; that the only reason they might leave is because I
have dismissed them. I dont want them leaving because of their lack
of security or interest in the lesson being taught or the students whom
are discussing norms of mathematics or school. I want them to feel

safe and comfortable coming to me for assistance in both life and in

the classroom and that I may guide them in the right direction towards
making a positive impact both on their lives and on the future that
they have in society.
Overall I feel that the way I teach is a more modern version of
the amazing teachers I had when I grew up. I want my students to see
that traditional mathematics can be enhanced with real-life
applications and technology integration that might not have been
taught or seen in the past five years. I want them to be competitive
and feel that their teacher is the most qualified and always changing
teacher that everyone strives to have. The students deserve to work
with the latest technology, gadgets and content that will benefit them
in the longrun both in their careers and in college. I want them to love
math and love coming to my class everyday. Overall, teaching is my
passion and I want the students who I work with everyday to show the
same passion in something meaningful so that they, too, deserve the
same happiness I have given myself personally by loving and enjoying
Mathematics education.