Steven Diaz

Math Instructor

My Teaching Philosophy
 My Teaching Philosophy

Education opens the doors of opportunities for a better future. As an educator, I will

commit to facilitate a quality education for my students, so the skills and knowledge they will

acquire in my courses increase their chances to succeed in whatever endeavors they pursue in

their lives. Learning in my classroom will be active, reflective, rigorous, relevant, and applicable

to the life experiences of my students. However, students will also experience learning in a

caring, positive, and supporting classroom (onsite and online) environment. Knowing each of my

students and meeting their personal learning needs is paramount in my classroom practice, so I

can foster a productive learning environment in which students do not hesitate to participate,

question, and collaborate in the learning process. Learning is a personal experience but it is

enhanced when interacting and collaborating with other individuals. I will strive to foster a

community of learners in my classroom, in which students’ contributions are assets of the

learning process.

My role is to create and facilitate learning environments in which students have the

opportunity to use their personal experiences and intellectual curiosities as the driving force to

seek and acquire new knowledge and skills. My responsibility is to help my students develop the

skill of reflecting constantly on how they learn and realizing how the course content make them

better critical thinkers, problem solvers, and decision makers. My mission is to create awareness

of how mathematics plays an essential role in understanding the world around us and how it

improves the many decisions we do in our lives.

The use of technology in my instructional practice is essential to help students succeed in

the technological driven society we live in. Students must experience how to use technology not
just for social, entertainment, and job-related purposes, but also as a learning tool that will

enhance the quality of their lives and those around them. The use of technology in my

instructional practice will provide interactive and engaging learning experiences that meet the

individual learning needs of my students. I will use multimedia tools that could facilitate

concrete experiences of abstract concepts or complex ideas for my students.

Technological tools will also help overcoming communication barriers such as distance,

time, and language so learning can occur at anytime-any place-any language. In addition, I will

use technological tools that facilitate the process of collaboration and enables students to connect

with each other and build a community of learners. Moreover, I will use technology to create

alternative assessments that facilitate authentic learning experiences and measure effectively

students’ attainment of the course objectives. Finally, technology will be a professional

developmental tool to continually improve my teaching practice. Connecting with other

educators to collaborate in everything related with education and accessing learning-teaching

resources or information are essential to continue growing as a 21sth century educator.

In summary, my instructional practices are focused on creating and facilitating learning

opportunities for my students to experience and practice the skills that will help them succeed in

the 21st century. To do this, I must model the same skills that I want them to acquire in my

courses.