What is your teaching philosophy?

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." It is my responsibility as an educator to get involved with my school's community to learn about the cultures of my students to avoid stereotypes and misunderstandings. I am an experientialist educator. Life is a discovery and education is a form of action that allows each child to understand life and acquire knowledge based on their own social life or background. I don't know everything; I will learn alongside my students. I want to add a twist to the math curriculum to be able to incorporate my student's interests, to make the classroom more prone to a growth of knowledge. I want to be the pusher, the teacher they feel a need to make happy because of the strong established relationship. I want to show them their potential; I want to help my students see that they are fully humans, who make mistakes, but with a heart, with an urge to succeed not only in algebra or trigonometry, but in life. I want them to identify who they are in their world and show them how to be part of the bigger world. I believe in empowerment and will facilitate my students to think critically and outside the box just like they will do in geometry. Teaching math will be correlated to my students' interests. Observing my passion for math will help them discover their passion. It will help them form a mind of thinking, and they will know what is expected of them and what is right and what is wrong. They will have the opportunity to decide what project to explore next, for I will help them along the way. I will help them see what they can do and will help them do even more. I want them to trust me and have mutual respect, respect for their classmates, respect towards the subject, but more importantly, respect towards learning. Respect is key in my classroom and the only rule, for everything revolves around it. Respect will be given to everyone regardless of race, class, abilities or disabilities; respect will be expected from everyone regardless of culture. Culture is vital; it is a stepping stone to greater knowledge in the classroom. I will be an open-minded and optimistic teacher. I will expect more from my students so that they in turn become more motivated, but I will verify that every student not only understands but can apply math outside the classroom, like utilizing the Pythagorean Theorem effectively. I will not move on if the student doesn't fully understand because it will then be more difficult for them to follow or lead. Once they acquire the required skills and knowledge, we will learn how to be part of the global community, each being able to use math in the real world. I will put my best effort in accomplishing all the aforementioned goals and many more. I would put my full passion and myself into teaching our friendly subject math and in being there for my students. I am accountable for their failures but will also reap their rewards. Reflection is key; for it is the only way I will grow as an educator.