My teaching philosophy

    I never thought I would become a teacher before I started my teaching career. I like this job because it makes me understand how I can help those students who are in need but also I learn a lot from the interaction with them. Every semester, when I walked into a new class, I was so excited to know more new students. They make me understand how much I should learn to be a good teacher and how far I still need to go to attain that level of teaching skill.

    In addition to teaching students English in the class, I care about problems they encounter in both school and family life. I sincerely believe, if the student is not happy in the life outside the classroom, he or she might not get effective learning in any class. I like to let them talk about their personal problems. I always show my friendship before we start to get into any personal issue. In my philosophy, I think the solid foundation between students and teachers should be built on the mutual trust.

    To be a teacher, it is undeniable that s/he should have a certain passion for teaching. Remembering our school days, we appreciate those teachers who show their patience when we make mistakes and who show their concern when we are lost. If one can meet a really good teacher in their lives, I believe, it can make a significant difference in their lives.

    Fortunately, I am a teacher, who has the opportunity to teach students and hear their voices. Actually, before I came to the U.S, I didn’t know much about how to teach writing. Though I cared about their lives outside of the classroom, I didn’t know how to encourage them to express their voices in the writing. So, when I go back to teach my students in the future, I think I will not restrain their writing. The importance of the ideas, organization and content in the writing will be emphasized prior to that of grammatical errors. And then, deciding what is the tolerable writing accent, namely, some minor errors such as singular/plural or article errors can be accepted if the ideas are understandable through the paper. Before handing in the paper, the students are encouraged to come up with an outline and then, extend it to the preliminary draft. How I will participate in the process of students’ writing outline and draft is to discuss any misinterpretation problems before the assignment is due. This method doesn’t mean that the writing style can be put aside. The intention of this is to grade primarily on content, but I still need to circle types of grammatical errors on the final draft. Finally, I will ask the students to correct and hand in the final assignment after the ideas are clear.

    I think, I will let students express their inner voices through the writing. In doing so, I don’t need to spare additional time to construct the bridge between us, but I can communicate with them in writing. The basic principle of my teaching philosophy is unchangeable---to figure out what students think about and to care about their voices. The only way I need to modify is how to combine my teaching philosophy with teaching writing.