Final Philosophy Statement

      At the beginning of the semester I would have never thought I would learn so much. At the beginning my philosophy was lecture and only lecture. I thought that the key to understanding the material is to constantly lecture to the students over and over again hoping that the each student eventually understands the material. That is how it was at my high school so I just assumed that it was like that for any school. Boy am I wrong! Lecture is not the key to understanding material at all, especially when it comes to mathematics.
  
     Lecture is not a very important factor in teaching anymore. Yes there are some days where all you can do is lecture but it is not something that one should do each and every day. Technology in the classroom is a concept that I never witnessed while I was in high school so it was totally new concept to me when I went into a classroom that used a lot of technology. I was skeptical about the whole technology idea until I saw it in action. I always thought that technology always has issues and it never works correctly and once again I was wrong. Technology is a great tool to use in the classroom especially when you want to show the students great online videos and tutorials that relate the topic you are about to teach. Technology gives students so many opportunities that past students will never have. I will definitely use technology in my classroom as much as I can.

     I also have learned that group activities is a great way for students to learn. I always thought that group work was not a great idea because when I was in school I was always the student that did the work and everyone would copy off of. My theory on group work has totally changed this semester. While observing the teacher would assign a lot of group work and it was amazing to see how each student did his or her own work and how they collaborated with each other to solve the math equations. Not a single student that I saw copied any work from another student and that gave me a lot of hope with group work for my future classroom. I hope to use a lot of group activities in my classroom to that the students can help each other which most of the time is more helpful than the teacher trying to explain the concept.

     My philosophy statement has changed a lot throughout the semester and I believe that it has changed for the better. I'll be able to relate to my students more and be able to make my classroom a great learning experience for each student that enters my room.