Teaching Philosophy

I believe that every student is a learner. Each has the capacity to participate, contribute, and progress in their learning. I also believe that students can realize their learning potential in socially-just classroom environments which build upon individual strengths and respond to individual needs. With the aim of creating such classrooms, my teaching philosophy is guided by the following principles:

Safety My classroom is a place where students feel a 'security of person', and safe in the exchange of understandings, ideas, and viewpoints in the pursuit of their learning.

Equity My students require different types of instruction and support in order to meet my high expectations.

Respect All members of my classroom community hold each other in high regard for who they are as people. Everyone’s contributions to the learning process are valued.

Trust My students trust that my actions are intended to ensure a safe and respectful learning environment and to progress their learning; I trust that my students’ actions have the same motivation.

Inclusivity Each of my students is welcomed within the classroom community and actively participates both in their learning and in the assessment of their learning.

As a social justice educator, I believe that creating a safe and equitable learning environment begins with a critical understanding of my personal biases, and the recognition that they too are dynamically constructed and altered by a continually evolving society. My ongoing professional learning therefore includes an element of continual self-reflection, where I assess my personal perceptions and how they are affecting the learning of my students.

I recognize the existence of various social groups in my classroom and the potential barriers to education these groups may encounter. However, I am careful to avoid letting labels define who my students are as individuals. While fully respecting their backgrounds, I maintain high expectations for all of my students, both in terms of classroom behaviour and academic performance. Equitable classrooms include the need to remain firm, fair, and consistent in these expectations. Similarly, inclusive assessments are transparent, purposeful, and have consistently applied expectations which allow students to be active participants in the assessment process, and help ensure that success is achievable.

As a teacher, I believe in administering a culturally responsive pedagogy which connects the subject matter I teach to the world in which my students live. Considering one of the main challenges for this generation of students is climate change, connecting my lessons with environmental sustainability is especially relevant.

Through meaningful classroom experiences, I believe math and physics should serve as a wondrous exploration and subsequent appreciation of why and how aspects of the physical world happen. Every student is a mathematician, and every student is a physicist – and part of my job as a math and physics teacher is to inspire my students to believe that such titles are not reserved for society’s elite. I also recognize that as a teacher, my challenge is to simultaneously teach those students who find math and physics easy, and those students that find these subjects difficult.

With a genuine respect for Indigenous systems of knowledge transfer, I believe that sharing knowledge is not to be “undertaken from the position of expertise”. Rather, I intend to exchange knowledge with my students “with humility as a way of provoking critical reflection in others, while continuing to learn myself” (Regan, 2010, p. 29). By being open and honest with students about what I know, I aim to demonstrate to my students the ongoing and universal nature of learning. Ultimately, my goal is not only for students to learn, but for students to see themselves as life-long learners.

Reference

Regan, P. (2010). An unsettling pedagogy of history and hope. In unsettling the settler within: Indian residential schools, truth telling, and reconciliation in Canada (pp. 19-53). Vancouver, BC: UBC Press. Retrieved from: http://www.ubcpress.ca/books/pdf/chapters/2010/UnsettlingTheSettlerWithin.pdf