Education empowers students to be informed and powerful thinkers that can tackle the difficult problems facing themselves and their society. Students will become workers, innovators, and scholars, and without proper education, will fall short of their potential. Teachers must hold high expectations for both students and themselves to nurture tomorrow’s great leaders. Education and the role of teachers within it are incredibly important to our society, and we must provide the best education possible to advance and elevate our future.
The teacher should play the role of facilitator of knowledge, guiding students to discoveries rather than simply delivering information for them to commit to memory. It is absolutely essential that the teacher is both knowledgeable in and passionate about their content, and employ those attributes to respond to students’ questions by flexibly and creatively leading them towards self-discovery. Students learn best when they discover patterns and truths, and the teacher must patiently and diligently lead students to ascertain these patterns and truths of the world for themselves.
I believe that strong relationships between students and instructors are the oil in a classroom’s learning machine. Student-teacher relationships founded on optimism, empathy, and authenticity lead to motivation and trust in the classroom. I believe strongly that a teacher that students trust and do not want to disappoint has already taken care of most classroom management issues. I make it a point from day one to communicate with my students. I memorize their names before they walk into the door of my classroom on the first day, and I greet them with a positive attitude every single day. Together we forge a relationship of mutual respect and accountability that breeds the best in each of us.
To push my students to their greatest mathematical understanding, I believe in inquiry, struggle, collaboration, and immediate feedback. My classroom has energy. Students have healthy arguments as they challenge each other’s mathematical ideas, wrestling for solutions to real and meaningful problems. Students ask questions that are vital to the process, and I respond to those questions with more questions, not answers, that allow them to unlock the next step in problem-solving. I use formative assignments and assessments that utilize frequent feedback on the part of the teacher and continuous revision on the part of the student, emphasizing that an accurate answer is far more important than a timely answer, and that problem-solving is a fluid process and mistakes are to be expected along the way.
My role as an educator is extremely important, and one that I revere and fulfill on a daily basis. I am responsible for dozens of students’ minds in a year, and that responsibility has far-reaching implications. By holding my students accountable to the highest expectations, forging positive relationships, modeling an excitement for mathematics, and acting as a facilitator of knowledge, I walk students out my door more confident in, curious about, and excited for mathematics than when they walked in, putting them closer to innovating and leading thoughtful and positive change in our world.