A little Biography of Mr. Tat
Being a Teacher: The Adventure of a Mentor of Young Minds...
Hello! Welcome to my Digitized Portfolio. My name is Philip Tat, and I am currently a Mathematics teacher at Stephen Decatur Middle School in Decatur, IL. My life goal is to become an awesome and effective mathematics teacher in this diverse world while utilizing the available technology to keep with the Electronic and Digital Age. Another goal is someday I can travel all around the world. I am fortunate enough to already travel extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, all over Europe, China, and Thailand. I feel that I want to connect Math and the meaning of math to interdisciplinary subjects including science: experiments and phenomenon, language arts: the reading of fiction and non-fiction mediums, and social studies: the interaction of people, culture, custom, and arts of different locations around the world.
I want to educate because I want to make a difference in someone’s life. I want to give the students the skills and knowledge that will motivate them to continue their education. Using skills, critical thinking, and content that students will utilize in math classes in their everyday life and surrounding. I strongly believe that with education and the skills that they learn in school, a better life will be the result as they grow up in this competitive world to be the change and difference each student will become. Upward social mobility will be one of the result of education and despite current situation, it depends on the student to use what they learn in school to do so. As a teacher, I want to motivate and foster this belief and strive my best to make this a reality for all students. I never grew tired hearing stories from my grandparents and parents about their incredible journey out of Communist Vietnam during the Vietnam War and their struggles as working-class Americans. They lost everything but had to start over in order to achieve the American Dream. These experiences molded my family’s cultural background, but my family stressed education and the result was college and the life that my parents wished their children to have: to make the difference in others' life and gain economic stability to have more freedom and live more comfortable than ever.
My personal family history combined with significant experiences in high school, resulted in my desire to become a secondary educator. Because middle school was such a significant turning point in my life, I believe I want to make the same impact on my future students. Middle school begins the process in which students evolve into young adults. In addition to the struggles of obtaining success in academics, middle school students will have to face social challenges in their daily lives. Even if a student excelled in elementary school, problems with family, friends, part-time jobs, and society can cripple a student’s strive for success and the student, in turn, will cope with various methods of either facing the problem or continue to run away from the problems. I was fortunate enough to have a teacher who was always there when I needed a person to talk to in times when I felt overburdened. I want to be that middle school teacher who encourages communication, where students know that I care about the student and I can work with their problem by explaining how there is always an answer and violence is never the answer when looking back in history. These problems can be accommodated by encouraging the student to ask questions and explore possible answers. As in history and math, solutions can be found when students investigate and draw conclusions from different perspectives of the same situation, especially when the problem is similar to open-ended questions—not an easy one word answer, in addition the answer is only one step, but the process of how to obtain the solution also matters.
I came from: a middle school and high school that values hard work and the American Dream, but struggled with a “bad reputation” because it was comprised mainly of minority students from the south side of Chicago. Though I was born and lived in Chicago all my life, English was my second language. I quickly learned English when I was in school and grew up with a culture that was very different than that of my home. Consequently, diversity in school impacted my life as a way to learn with other people and being culturally aware. This social environment has helped me become aware of who I am and learn to respect others. When I was tutoring a diverse group of students, I saw how these students coped with each other and did not let cultural differences get in the way of learning. As a teacher, I had to utilize different ideas to help them comprehend the material. Children learn at a different pace and must be given equal chance.
Throughout my life, I had been blessed with the skills I learned and the people I met. I want to reproduce this joy with others. As my refugee parents struggle to make my life better than theirs, I want to help others make their life a bit easier than mine and to enjoy all the opportunities to learn and strive for a prosperous society for others. I want to teach because I want to experience the joys and the achievement of actually doing something worthwhile that will lead to an everlasting impact on students’ lives.
Hello! Welcome to my Digitized Portfolio. My name is Philip Tat, and I am currently a Mathematics teacher at Stephen Decatur Middle School in Decatur, IL. My life goal is to become an awesome and effective mathematics teacher in this diverse world while utilizing the available technology to keep with the Electronic and Digital Age. Another goal is someday I can travel all around the world. I am fortunate enough to already travel extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, all over Europe, China, and Thailand. I feel that I want to connect Math and the meaning of math to interdisciplinary subjects including science: experiments and phenomenon, language arts: the reading of fiction and non-fiction mediums, and social studies: the interaction of people, culture, custom, and arts of different locations around the world.
I want to educate because I want to make a difference in someone’s life. I want to give the students the skills and knowledge that will motivate them to continue their education. Using skills, critical thinking, and content that students will utilize in math classes in their everyday life and surrounding. I strongly believe that with education and the skills that they learn in school, a better life will be the result as they grow up in this competitive world to be the change and difference each student will become. Upward social mobility will be one of the result of education and despite current situation, it depends on the student to use what they learn in school to do so. As a teacher, I want to motivate and foster this belief and strive my best to make this a reality for all students. I never grew tired hearing stories from my grandparents and parents about their incredible journey out of Communist Vietnam during the Vietnam War and their struggles as working-class Americans. They lost everything but had to start over in order to achieve the American Dream. These experiences molded my family’s cultural background, but my family stressed education and the result was college and the life that my parents wished their children to have: to make the difference in others' life and gain economic stability to have more freedom and live more comfortable than ever.
My personal family history combined with significant experiences in high school, resulted in my desire to become a secondary educator. Because middle school was such a significant turning point in my life, I believe I want to make the same impact on my future students. Middle school begins the process in which students evolve into young adults. In addition to the struggles of obtaining success in academics, middle school students will have to face social challenges in their daily lives. Even if a student excelled in elementary school, problems with family, friends, part-time jobs, and society can cripple a student’s strive for success and the student, in turn, will cope with various methods of either facing the problem or continue to run away from the problems. I was fortunate enough to have a teacher who was always there when I needed a person to talk to in times when I felt overburdened. I want to be that middle school teacher who encourages communication, where students know that I care about the student and I can work with their problem by explaining how there is always an answer and violence is never the answer when looking back in history. These problems can be accommodated by encouraging the student to ask questions and explore possible answers. As in history and math, solutions can be found when students investigate and draw conclusions from different perspectives of the same situation, especially when the problem is similar to open-ended questions—not an easy one word answer, in addition the answer is only one step, but the process of how to obtain the solution also matters.
I came from: a middle school and high school that values hard work and the American Dream, but struggled with a “bad reputation” because it was comprised mainly of minority students from the south side of Chicago. Though I was born and lived in Chicago all my life, English was my second language. I quickly learned English when I was in school and grew up with a culture that was very different than that of my home. Consequently, diversity in school impacted my life as a way to learn with other people and being culturally aware. This social environment has helped me become aware of who I am and learn to respect others. When I was tutoring a diverse group of students, I saw how these students coped with each other and did not let cultural differences get in the way of learning. As a teacher, I had to utilize different ideas to help them comprehend the material. Children learn at a different pace and must be given equal chance.
Throughout my life, I had been blessed with the skills I learned and the people I met. I want to reproduce this joy with others. As my refugee parents struggle to make my life better than theirs, I want to help others make their life a bit easier than mine and to enjoy all the opportunities to learn and strive for a prosperous society for others. I want to teach because I want to experience the joys and the achievement of actually doing something worthwhile that will lead to an everlasting impact on students’ lives.