For as long as I can remember I have wanted to be a teacher. It has always been my dream to have the opportunity to educate students and to help them with their struggles through life. A teacher is a role model, a friend, and a facilitator of knowledge. A teacher to me is someone that guides students to learn and encourages them to reach their full potential. They are there to prepare students for the real world and to help them succeed.

As I learn more about the educational field and continue my schooling, the more I am convinced that the school serves a variety of purposes to the students. School should be a place where students should want to go every day. They should feel comfortable and safe at school, and they should be stimulated and excited by the environment. I have created in my mind what an ideal classroom should look like. I think the school environment is a crucial aspect to the success of our students.

Once students have arrived at school it is up to the teachers and the administrators to educate. I have started to determine what is important to me and to my role as a teacher. Below is a list of areas I feel strongly about and would guide my behavior as a math teacher.

* Curriculum needs to be redefined with time. We need to recognize what math skills our students need to succeed in life.

* Curriculum should reflect values of society and the needs of our society. Nowadays families are breaking apart and our students are becoming parents themselves. We need to incorporate these ideas into how and what we teach our students.

* Students should be encouraged to solve real life problems related to their classes. They need to see connections between the concepts they are learning in their math classes and how these are going to be used in their everyday life. If we do not do this, then it is meaningless and pointless to the students. A math curriculum that I have worked with called the Core Plus Mathematics Project, has worked to incorporate all real world situations into learning math topics. Up to this point research has shown it to be very successful.

* Cooperative groups should be used and supported because students need to learn how to work in groups. Once they enter the working world they will be required to do this, so they need to be taught how to do it effectively in school.

* All students should be accepted in the classroom regardless of race, gender, religion or ability. Everyone can learn, and everyone needs to feel that they can learn. This is one of the most important roles I will posses as a teacher.

* Partial inclusion should be embraced if classroom aids are available because students with disabilities should not be separated from everyone else. These students can be included in the regular classroom if there is some extra support provided.

* Multiple methods of teaching lessons should be used to aid all students learning, and the ideas of Howard Gardner should be followed. Students learn math in a variety of ways, and I will incorporate hands-on and visual learning into my lessons.

* Students should be active in the learning process. The classroom should not be run by the teacher. There needs to be a large amount of student-guided learning. Brain research has proven that students need to be active to be successful.

* Computers and other modes of technology should be used in every classroom on a regular basis because it can enhance lessons. In my math classes I would use calculators on a regular basis to assist my students in many of the concepts. As an example, I would have my students use it to calculate Pearson's correlation rather than taking ten minutes to compute it every time.

* Teachers should be educated on technology usage and available products to use in their classrooms. There are so many new and useful programs that could be used to supplement and enhance lessons, but many times we are not aware that they even exist.

* Team teaching should be used to make connections between subjects. If teachers can relate math, English, history, and science on a regular basis then students will appreciate more why they are learning matrices or complex equations.

* Teachers should be evaluated on a regular basis because there are many teachers in the schools that are no longer doing their jobs. Too many teachers repeat their lessons from year to year and do not make modifications for their new students. We need to have good teachers to have successful students.

Click here to see my Interdisciplinary Unit.