MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
The start of my journey to obtaining my teaching certificate can be traced back to my high school tutoring experience. As an after-school tutor, I worked with elementary, middle, and high school students, helping them better understand math and science concepts. During these sessions, I quickly noticed that students exhibited a range of learning styles, yet they all came from classrooms that relied heavily on lectures. In these lecture-based environments, students often felt they understood the material as it was being explained to them. However, when faced with application-based homework assignments, many struggled to apply what they had learned and didn’t know where to begin. This disconnect between understanding in class and the ability to apply concepts outside of it was a repeated pattern in my tutoring sessions. Students believed they had grasped the material, but when they encountered difficulties, their confidence in learning the concept went away. This experience opened my eyes to the limitations of traditional, lecture-based instruction, which can give students the false impression of understanding without comprehension or the skills needed to solve problems independently. Seeing this challenge repeatedly during my tutoring sessions inspired me to become a teacher who creates a more inclusive and motivating learning environment. I want my future students to engage actively with the material, not simply absorb information passively. My goal is to build a classroom that encourages a growth mindset, where students are motivated to persevere through challenges and develop confidence in their ability to learn and apply new concepts. This desire to foster active learning and resilience is what drives me as I work toward becoming an educator.
