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My name is Jeff Zittergruen, and I am currently in my third year at Wartburg College and plan to graduate in May 2008 after student teaching next Winter Semester. I am a mathematics secondary education major and would love to teach mathematics to high school students at any grade level. I am very excited to get one step closer to teaching and am looking forward to my student teaching experience next winter. Along with teaching mathematics, I am planning on coaching high school athletics. For the past two years I have been a student coach with the Wartburg Men's Basketball team. I have learned a great amount about basketball from Coaches Dick Peth and Oliver Drake. They have taught me not only the principles and concepts of having a good team, but playing and coaching the game the right way. I was fortunate enough to be the coach of the junior varsity program at Wartburg for the 2006-2007 season and loved that experience. I can not wait to use the ideas that I have learned from those coaches and incorporate them into my own program at the high school level.

For our student teaching application we had to compile our philosophy of teaching. The goal for my future classroom is to provide an environment in which all students can reach their full potential personally and academically.   I am eager to work with all different types of students and provide the personal attention needed for each individual student to succeed in learning mathematics.   I personally believe that every child can successfully learn mathematics if they are able to find an interest in a subject that they can use in their future professions.   As a teacher, I am going to strive to make connections for the students between what we are learning in the classroom to what they encounter in their daily lives.

Mathematics is full of arithmetic and algorithmic devices, but drilling students just on those concepts is not effectively teaching students mathematics.   I want students to take a hands-on approach to their learning of mathematics and be able to discover relationships and concepts on their own with teacher-led worksheets or projects.   If students can get away from the notion of math just being solving algorithms and can see the deeper applications of math, then hopefully their interest for the subject will rise.   As a teacher I will look to push that deeper understanding by my approach and lessons.

Finally, as a teacher, I want to be a person that students can look to for motivation and encouragement.   Sometimes, all a student needs to be successful is a person to believe in them or push them to do things they did not believe to be possible.   I want to provide a safe, comfortable learning environment for students where all students can thrive.   I will promote diversity in all forms that will be present in my classroom and will make the extra effort to make diverse learners feel comfortable in a possibly new cultural setting as well as to make the class embrace all forms of diversity in the classroom.   My philosophy is that educators have the great responsibility of not only affecting the lives of children for the short amount of time that students are in the classroom, but also to provide the tools and lessons needed to be positive and productive members of society
I have lived in Van Horne, IA all of my life and love the small-town community atmosphere. My father, Gary, is a superintendent at Benton Community and I got my desire to teach and coach from him. My mom, Jenny, is a nurse at St. Luke's in Cedar Rapids. I am the oldest of four children. I have on sister, Katie (18), and two brothers, Tommy (13) and Michael (10). I also am recently engaged to my longtime girlfriend, Chelsey. We are planning a July 2008 wedding. Besides teaching and coaching, I enjoy any sort of outdoor activity as well as spending time with my family and close friends.