What is your teaching philosophy?

There are three things I think make a successful teacher and a successful school year for the teacher and students: respect, engagement, and guidance. Your students will respect you if you respect them as well. Students need to be engaged in your lesson. The easiest way I have found to engage students is to make the activity some sort of game or contest even if it is just a worksheet. Finally, a teacher needs to guide their students in the right direction to a successful education and future. They should help students learn, develop life skills, think critically, and solve problems. Teachers should not just pound facts into their students' heads; you have to teach them how to learn on their own and be able to figure things out on their own. Exploration of the material is a better way for students to learn compared to just lecturing them, plus it is more engaging. If they understand why we do something or where it comes from, they will do better applying that topic. This helps them see the usefulness of the material, which is especially good in mathematics.