Favourite and Least Favourite Math Teachers Response (september 16th)

One of my favourite teachers was my 10th grade mathematics teacher. She was a really kind woman who had a clear passion for the subject which really encouraged us to see math through her eyes and not as something boring/to fear. She encouraged group work throughout the term, with both small group problem-solving, and whole-class discussions that helped make math feel like a team sport. I especially appreciated that we would spend a class before a test making a collective mind-map of everything we thought was important for that unit as a sort of study guide. It not only helped us actively recall what we had just spent the last few weeks learning, but I imagine it was also beneficial for her to see ahead of time where we might have deficits. She also made a point of taking as much stress out of assessments as possible, giving students colouring sheets to decompress before and after tests if they wanted, and having a generally approachable persona that helped with coming to her with concerns. 

On the other hand, some of my least favourite math teachers have been in my university career, the reasons for which I think are probably largely attributed to the sheer scale of university classes compared to high school, but which nonetheless I found did not work for me as a student. In particular, I disliked that some of my professors didn’t seem to make an effort to scale down/explain the math they were employing to solve certain problems, possibly because to them (who've been in the field for years), it seemed too basic to bother to explain. As a result, it often felt like math was being ‘made up’ on the way to the answer, and left me feeling incredibly discouraged and having to spend my own time finding outside sources to help me. This, coupled with the fact that in many cases I didn’t get the sense that they cared all that much if we actually did well, just that they conveyed the information they needed to, made it hard to approach them with questions for fear of seeming “stupid”.  Again, I acknowledge that in class sizes that are often in the hundreds, it’s much harder to achieve a level of attention and care for your students than it is in a room of below 30, which probably played a large part in these factors. Nevertheless, it was definitely a more challenging experience as a student. 

Both of these experiences have greatly informed the kind of math teacher I want to be. I know how isolating it can be when it feels like your teacher doesn’t care about you, and conversely how empowering it is when you feel like you are a part of a team. I want to ensure that I leave my students with the impression that I am here for them and any questions or concerns they may have. I also want to be sure that I create an environment where there are no “stupid” questions, and students feel comfortable enough to ask questions, ideally by anticipating some big ones by appropriately scaling the definitions/content to their age level, but also by encouraging discourse through group-work and regular check-ins. On a more menial note, my 10th grade teachers' methods of creating mind maps and offering means of destressing pre/post assessment has really stuck with me, and something I would like to try implementing in my own classroom. I think in these ways, I can hopefully be a better math teacher.