Journal: What are my biases?

What are your biases and how do you mitigate your behavior when working with students?

This journal is long overdue. I had some great dialogue with my classmates on the CSUSM Grouply site on the matter, and was unaware of this journal being separate of that assignment for some time.

One of the biases I have with teaching math is that many students don’t have an imagination. By the time many of these students reach my high school class, they have been taught procedural information without connecting it to anything relevant in their lives.

The fact of the matter is that mathematics can explain why the world we live in works. Newer technologies today can make exploring the outdoors more of chore than a privilege, something I find extremely disturbing. This disconnect is only becoming more extreme, and it is leaving our students less engaged with the real world (yet more engaged in virtual realities that are visually, not physically, stimulating).

To mitigate my behavior when working with students of limited imagination/creativity, I will remain calm with my students and give positive encouragement for them to be more fanciful. I have found my free-writing/poetry sessions in Jannis’ class to be some of my most memorable mind-opening experiences in a classroom (along with some great synectics sessions). Oh ya, and that reminds me; I am going to try to stimulate my students’ creativity by trying out some synectics sessions in my own classroom. Therefore, my bias in this regard is only fuel for my fire to inspire.

I also have biases that resemble stereotypes(i.e. Asians are good at math, African Americans are good athletes, Jewish people are frugal with their money, etc.). I do my best to not let those biases affect me when I am presented with a situation involving persons or things that fit certain stereotypes. I bring this mentality to my classroom persona. As a teacher, I have the responsibility to teach my content, but also to prepare students to be effective citizens in a Democracy, which is a privilege I take seriously. Teaching critical thinking skills and the ability to make judgements based from experiences, and not from external factors such as the media, is my main philosophy on the matter.