GOALS OF TEACHING

            Although I have always known that teaching would be my chosen profession, the actual undertaking of preparing a ten lesson unit for the first time was a daunting task.  One of the first considerations I had to make when preparing to teach was to think about what my goals were for the experience and what I hoped to accomplish.  My first priority was obviously to be effective in conveying the mathematical concepts my students would be responsible for knowing.  To this end, I set a goal to use a variety of instructional methods and teaching techniques to convey the concepts I will cover in my unit.  It is important to provide diversity from day to day in order to retain the attention of the students and to differentiate the lesson to support various learning styles.  I incorporated direct instruction, student centered instruction, problem solving, and various cooperative learning strategies in order to meet this goal.  Of these methods, I tried to rely most heavily on student centered instruction as I feel that, when used correctly, it provides for the greatest depth of comprehension and the greatest retention of the material.

            Along the same lines, I also set out to assess my students in as many ways as possible in order to give each student an opportunity to showcase their strengths and work on developing any weaknesses they may have.  Any schooling, especially in middle school and high school, is meant to provide students with the skills they will need to succeed in the future.  To this end, it is necessary to practice all forms of presentation, including the documentation the steps taken to reach an end, a written explanation of a conclusion that has been reached, and oral presentation to share information with others.  In my unit, I attempted to incorporate each of these in order to assess my students.

            My next goal dealt less with the actual material that I would be presenting and more with the way in which I presented the concepts of my unit.  Although it is sometimes difficult and much more time consuming to plan, I believe in the value of differentiated lessons.  I know when I walk into a classroom that each of my students will be unique, and therefore, they should be treated as such.  Differentiation is not only valuable to those students on an IEP or in a special education program.  It also allows for increased freedom of thought in even the brightest of students and can allow a student’s strengths to show through when they otherwise may have gone unnoticed.  Differentiation of process gives each student his or her greatest potential for success, and differentiation of product allows the creativity and imagination of each student to shine through.  I believe both are vital to effective teaching.

            Additionally, I set a goal to implement effective classroom management strategies that would keep my students on task while creating a comfortable classroom environment for learning to take place.  Classroom management is one of the most difficult aspects of teaching for less experienced educators and is also one of the most important.  It is very unlikely that any substantial learning will take place in a classroom that is acting in a disruptive and discourteous manner.  Effective classroom management allows the maximum amount of time for the students to be absorbed in the material that is being taught.  Along with classroom management, the environment that is fostered in the classroom also affects the students’ ability to learn.  My hope is to create an atmosphere that is receptive to sharing of ideas, questioning, and acceptance.  Schooling is not only about concrete knowledge: it is also important to instill in the students a sense of tolerance and respect.

            Finally, my last goal is simple: I never want to be without an answer to the questions “Why do I have to learn this?” or “When will I ever need to know this?”  Without connections to real life experiences and situations, I feel that the learning the students acquire would have less meaning.  Therefore, as opposed to the goals I have set for my students, I would like to do my part and gain as much mathematical knowledge as possible.  The greater the knowledge I possess, the more connections I can make between concepts and the more relatable I can make the subject for my students.

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