Teaching Statement

I had been a high school mathematics teacher. I am fully aware the challenge to be a good teacher. Most students are more interested in practical objects than in abstract subjects. Students often want to get their hands on things they can touch and feel, instead of using their head to solve textbook problems which they usually don’t know how important these problems are and why it worth the effort to solve the problems. Due to the variety of interests among students, teaching requires indefinitely patient, love, well organized teaching scheme and a sense of humor.

I believe a good teacher should well understand the subject in his classes as well as be able to explain the material clearly in various ways to help students’ understanding and keep them motivated. A careful and organized lecture is a necessary to achieve this goal. In my opinion, an efficient teaching program should at least include the following components:

1. Effective teaching skills. These skills include logical and clear explanation of the material, active interaction with students and organization of on-class discussions. Efficient use of teaching tools such as a projector, and computers. Presentation with more graphical demonstrations and animations are definitely a plus to keep student highly motivated.

2. Deliberate design of a course. This includes a careful selection of material to be covered, a concrete schedule for teaching and learning. The material should be chosen to cover the fundamentals of the underlying subjects. The instructor should always prepare to answer why a theorem is interested, why an assumption is made and where a theorem is applicable. Of course, care should be taken in order not to lose the students’ attention in the course. Certain flexibility should also be kept in the schedule and in the plan of teaching for inevitable small changes that has to be made in the middle of the course.

3. Active communications among instructors and teaching assistants. Teaching is also a team works. A close communication among instructors and teaching assistants will help to find where are the “weakest” links in the teaching materials and who are the weakest links among all students in the same class. As a result, more attention can be paid to the lecture and to those students who feel withdrawal and cannot follow the class. In addition, interdisciplinary interactions have become a trend in many research areas. Communication among instructors would definitely not only build friendship but also broaden our view toward to both research and teaching.

4. Carefully designed homework and projects. For introductory undergraduate courses the homework problems should generally be close to those covered in class or in the textbook, while the homework problems should put more emphasis on the training of the students' creativity for honors classes, advanced undergraduate courses, and graduate courses. Grading methodology should also reflect these differences among introductory courses and advance courses. I would also like to assign course projects to my students. Students are expected to work as a team and solve more sophisticated problems. Through working on group projects, students can learn from each other, inspire more ideas and appreciate the true value of teamwork.

It would always be a joy for me to teach students, to interact with them and to learn from them. They will always be the source of new passion, new energy and new ideas. It is them the future belongs to. It would be a fortune for me to have a chance to help them and let them know how important mathematics and advance computation technologies are for understanding the great nature in our simple mind.