Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 2

Christian Arturo Wu

Philosophy of Education

Lisa Delpit said, True culture supports its people; it doesnt destroy them. I believe that
culture is learned and accepted by forging and creating relationships with my students so that
they can feel safe, accepted, and welcomed in my classroom. My philosophy of equity and
diversity stems from this notion of validating and listening to their voices and using their
experiences to integrate into the lessons. I have discovered that by asking simple questions such
as, What do you know about this word? or How was your weekend? or Did you win the
event? These questions allow me to uncover how each of my students is unique and bring
different perspective on a variety of topics. For example, in my first month of teaching in my
algebra class, I have built a good enough relationship with a few students that they started
coming into lunch to chat about homework, life, and school life because they felt comfortable
enough to have someone to just talk to. I have never had this experience of having students
connect with me, so experiencing this firsthand cemented in me that creating relationships are
paramount to creating a classroom that I believe is conducive to encouraging learning.
Furthermore, I have noticed that when I build these relationships with my students, my students
do not want to disappoint me; I found this to be a highlight of my career because it makes me
come into my classroom happier, refreshed, and highly motivated to enrich my students with
mathematics.
As a teacher, I support, encourage, and provide all the necessary resources in my belt to
allow my students to grow and prosper as scholars. I believe that a strong teacher-student
relationship is critical in fostering the growth of my students. Culturally Responsive
Teaching/Pedagogy is a practice that utilizes the experiences of the students' "funds of
knowledge," (their lived cultures, their interests, their intellectual, political, and historical
legacies) and connecting them positively to the curriculum that demands students to critically
think and question the mainstream culture in order empower them to use their intellect to create a
just, humane, and democratic society for future generations. This is a definition that I have
created after ruminating my own educational history and delving intensely into research
concerning culturally responsive pedagogy, equity, and equality. I am a firm believer that the
classroom is our classroom, it is not my classroom, it is the classroom for the students and
myself that promotes a safe and supportive learning environment to foster the learning
capabilities of all students, regardless of ability level.
Through the use of technology and my implementation of CRP, I am able to utilize my
students interest and integrate it into technology that allows their interests and hobbies to be
exposed and embellished upon by their classmates and myself. For example, by understanding
that many of my students love games that pit them against each other, I have used websites that
allows my students to create teams and play against each other to gain more points. Using this
interactive website, my students are engaged, having fun, and learning/reviewing the material for
the class. In a classroom like this, where the noise is not of mutiny, but engaged and focused
learning, my students are able to prosper and become better mathematicians than they would
have believed. It is not my job to make mathematics fun, but it is my responsibility to expose and
introduce mathematics to my students through every avenue at my disposal, and using online
resources, websites, and clever ways of integrating iPad/computers allows me to target my
students with interesting and often times, active learning.
I allow myself to build the relationships with my students in order to understand what
each students needs are, enabling me to differentiate my instructions as needed. Furthermore, by
Christian Arturo Wu
establishing equity and a community of learners, I begin to uncover the differences and
similarities of my students and share that with the class so that every student can be aware of the
issues, events, culture, and stories of their classmates that are safe to share. Differentiating my
instructions comes from getting to know the true struggles of my students; for example, a small
group my students has struggled with mathematics the entire year because they did not
understand the concept of multiplying a quantity by a fraction; thus, during my instructions, I
would always have a worked example of distributing a fraction with commentary. Within a few
weeks, I have seen these students power through distributing fractions with such proficiency that
they are always the first ones to raise their hands to answer questions relating to fractions. I
believe that my students need to discover their own grasp of their education and learning, and I
am the facilitator of that act. I empower my students with the techniques, reasoning, and
confidence that with practice, we can get better. To see my students grapple with their weakness
and overcome it, has made and validated why creating relationships are critical to differentiating,
to scaffold, and to instruct my students properly because this is their education and I am to
respond to their needs to my best of my abilities.
Without my vision of a safe classroom, my students cannot feel safe enough to share their
voice. It is within their voice and opinions that I start to see the diversities in my students. How
each one is different from the next and how each one offers something unique that it transforms a
classroom into an extraordinary classroom. As I mentioned before, my pedagogy stems from
creating relationships, and it is within these relationships that I am able to construct my vision of
where my students are strong and where my students are weak so that I can support them in their
short and long term goals.

Вам также может понравиться