Bev Ascah

Teaching Philosophy

In one phrase or statement my teaching philosophy is that it is my job to help the student become the best they can become at whatever subject and whatever their abilities are. If the best is a D, then let it be, but if the best is an A then let it be an A. My job is to help the student realize their potential and get that mark. To accomplish this though, teaching has to be a team effort between the teacher and the student for the student has to want to strive to be their best or it is not going to happen and as the teacher must help the student want to strive to be their best.

To make this be successful we need to start with a foundation of mutual trust and respect between the students and teacher. Respect is the bases of all solid relationships, and means simply, that you will treat me the way you would want to be treated no matter what –no racial, bigot thoughts, no second class attitudes, no "I am better then you", that we are all humans, we are all equal. I expect that the students will come to class ready to learn, with the right materials and the right attitude. For the teacher to be properly prepared to teach they need to do several things. Firstly and foremost they need to realize that not everyone learns in the same way, so they have to be ready to differentiate their instruction. Introduce it in one method, teach in another and review in a third. An example of differentiated instruction would be teaching the concept of ‘systematic listing’. This is an example of where we go from hands on, visual and auditory and finally onto abstract. The first lesson would be the hands on lesson starting with a group activity where the groups try to figure out how many different combinations are possible in a situation, and then come together to compare. The next step (lesson)would be the visual/auditory lesson where we learn how to figure out the total number of outcomes by using tree diagrams and charts, so that we can visually see what we are doing. The third step would be to show the product rule. While the rule is simple the abstract part of this lesson is that the students need to learn to recognize when the product rule will work and when it will not work without the use of tree diagrams or charts. This lesson also prepares the students for the next step of probabilities and using combinations and permutations rules. By the end of this lesson we have introduced and taught the concept but we still need to review. The last lesson would do exactly that review. The review would cover the whole unit from hands on (to refresh what we are doing), to visual/auditory and finally to the abstract. To accommodate different work styles I would allow the students to work in small groups, with partners or solo. Over the school year I vary my methods of assessments so as to allow the students to show their best understanding of the concepts. I like to assess several times during a unit, so that both the students and myself can have an accurate picture of how well they understand the material. This is extremely important for those students who sit final exams.

I have taught in the far north of Ontario, southern Ontario, England, online, and private school.  I have taught everything from grades 3 -4 , high school and esl.

I am at this time tutoring all grades and subjects, except French.  I am doing this online and in peoples home.