Q: Looking back at your teaching last semester, what did you discover about the needs of your students in your classes? What kinds of "needs" surfaced that surprised you?
A: Last semester I realized that my students needed remediation on fundamental mathematical skills that are crucial to progress in higher-level mathematics and in the material I was required to teach. This need certainly surprised me in that it was so widely prevalent in my class.
Another need I discovered about my students was the fact that many did not have the trust in their abilities to "get" the right answer. On many occasions, I would help a student with the steps in completing a task, only to have them ask me at the end if their answer is correct. The first few times I was asked this question I was surprised. but I found out that many of my students have the same insecurities. I have no doubt that the fault here lies with the way in which my students have been taught mathematics up until that point in their lives. My students have been taught that there is usually only one "right" way to do math. Over time, after being told that they have been "wrong" over and over, my students feel dumb, end up hating mathematics, and completely distrust their own abilities in the subject. A colleague of mine working at High Tech High North County wrote a great blog on the issue recently (see Bryan Meyer - Putting the Cart before the Horse).
On top of all this, the majority of my students need tremendous help with organizational skills.
Q: To what degree do you think you really understand the needs of your students? How wide is the "gap" between them and you?
A: See Journal #3
Q: What might have surfaced in the reading or in your teaching (about the realities of students' needs) that triggered a negative response in you? Try to identify why this response was triggered and how it relates to your biases.
A: The fact that my students are unable to organize their work in my class definitely triggers a negative response in me. Having many of my students asking for materials that were passed out and lost by my students is really frustrating. It is a waste of time for me to have to make up guided notes handouts for every lesson. Because of the expectation that the students won't take notes without graphically organized handouts makes the teaching profession a lot more tedious and time consuming. This relates to some biases I have in that I feel that many of my students today are less independent and held less accountable for their learning than when I was in school.
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