Letters after 10 Years

LETTER ONE:

 

Dear Ms Sturrock

                I just wanted to let you know that I really struggled in your class in grade 9.

                You obviously really like math, but sometimes I just want the simple version of how to do something. Your explanations were too long and complicated when I usually just wanted a concise answer. I didn't usually follow your explanations, and I wish you'd have explained slower and more precisely. You made math seem way too complicated. I stopped asking questions after a while.

                I also found your classroom too loud to actually focus. I feel like you didn't have any control over the class volume when we were working through activities. I wish we could have had more quiet work time so I could process what we were learning. 

                Hope this feedback helps you -- Student X

Reflection: I sometimes feel I get carried away in my explanations of concepts, and make them overly complicated. I think this is because I'm trying to explain my thought process and scaffold relational understanding, but I worry that it might result in students being overwhelmed by the amount of information. I also am worried about my classroom management skills. I want to include many hands on activities and have a lot of student participation, but I worry that I won't be able to control the class volume and environment as well, and this will negatively affect certain students' focus.

LETTER TWO:

 

Dear Ms. Sturrock,

                I wanted to send you a letter to let you know how much I appreciated you as my grade 8 teacher. First of all, I felt like you really cared about us and our learning, and I always felt welcome to talk to you or ask questions. I also really liked how much activity you put into your lessons. We were never sitting for too long and I enjoyed getting to use lots of different materials. I liked how much we got to participate each class, instead of you just talking at us from the board the whole time. I also appreciated how we got to do projects that used math to understand real world issues - like my ecological footprint!

                Thank you so much -- Student Y

               

Reflection: My number one goal as a teacher is that students feel safe and valued in my class. After that, I hope that I can engage students in math by using fun, diverse, multimodal activities. I want students to be active, and give them ample opportunities to be collaborative. I hope to incorporate real world relevance as well.