Creating Your Personal Teaching Purpose

Creating Your Personal Teaching Purpose

At Method, a public school, I developed a teaching mission statement and purpose. This was on a poster and displayed:

My Teaching Mission Statement:

As an “exceptional student” and STEM teacher in Method Schools, I pledge to reach to communicate with and motivate students to be active learners. I will help them to achieve beyond perceived barriers. I will seek to inspire and encourage students to reach beyond society’s limits. I pledge to do all that can be done to listen to parents and students and help empower them in an enriching, innovative learning environment so students can explore science, technology, engineering, art and math, and in so doing, they can thrive and be successful at learning and at life.

My teaching Purpose:

“I will have a safe, encouraging classroom and be a model of ethics and maturity while having fun. I will have a positive, encouraging attitude. I will find and develop and engage successful and stimulating teaching strategies, so students will grasp at concepts and realize nothing can hold them back.”

As stated by top educational researchers, “The number one problem in the classroom is not discipline; it is the lack of procedures and routines.” The definitive goal is to get the mission and rules happening on the first day of school that the students help create. The teacher supports the students collaborate as they create positive rules and know about the rubrics and procedures.

“The role of an educator is to stimulate the emergence of a child’s innate capacities to the fullest. It is not to fill an empty vessel.”

In my experiences in education, I found that a great quality teacher is living out their character and how and why they teach. A presence of gratitude and listening will empower the teacher to have a better command of their classroom. This will inspire the engagement of the students’ learning from this modeling of character. It will showcase caring and motivate effective learning goals with positive and constructive feedback. This will set a positive tone in the classroom. This tone will help facilitate a student to reach beyond their self-placed boundaries to create an “ownership” of their own education.

This means students can value themselves and one another. As stated in one’s Educational Goals, “feel confident in themselves as learners” and thus take responsibility in deep-rooted self-control of their own learning endeavors. Then the result will be the student, who may have previously been slacking in their learning development will start to believe in themselves. This is gleaned from the mindset of gratitude and how does one strife for their full potential and by the example of the teacher. The student can carry it further into what they can accomplish. This leads them to take control of their learning goals and realize, “yes I can, and I will” mindset of their education and future. This ownership will have them excelling by purpose and self-motivation from a better learning environment that showcases a model that helps them see their place in their educational journey. This will be by “owning” it, not just trying to get through it by “renting.” The outcomes are a better run classroom as students are taking better responsibly of their life and their education. Thus, students in this setting will be headed to the top level of their personal and educational achievement.

Here is an example in math. Most teachers and students see and use math as mere formulas for how to solve problems. Yes, we are to teach those targets. But there is so much more. I like to show my students that Math is a not only for practical use for higher computations and theorems, but as a viewpoint on the “how” of the universe and how that integrates with precise detail from Quadratics and Quantum Mechanics to Biology and thus how this is all involved in their life. Students can start to see an order, beauty, and exquisiteness of nature and their role in it. They can see mathematics as a gift that originates from a purpose and uses for humanity. This will lead to better discussions and even nurture better engagement, even student enjoyment. As students see the deeper and more comprehensive nature, they can formulate a better appreciation of their environment, education even mathematics. They will have an attitude of deeper reflection on what is mathematics and science.