Sept 28th Exit Slip

 In class today, we covered serveral topics, mostly about students and the classroom environment. The two main questions we discussed about are "how to support students and ourselves with the anxieties of our times" and "what are some implicit stories and assumptions in the classroom?" 

To answer the first question, one way to support students and ourselves in the classroom is to have  self-reflection. For students, reflection helps them ponder on the issues both they and the world around them face, as well as alert the teacher in the issues they may currently be facing. On the other hand, reflecting as a teacher allows us to make changes in our daily lives and work on areas we need to work on. The first step to solving a problem is to know what the problem is. After that, it is important as a teacher to be mindful and knowledgeable of the school's resources in helping students with their various problems. Sometimes, we just aren't sufficiently equipped to handle their problems ourselves, and thus we need external resources. That being said, the big takeaway for me is to be mindful of what is going around me, both as a teacher as an individual.

One of the biggest false assumptions I get a lot as a teacher and a student in the past is that a person is either good at math or not. I get that a lot from peers, colleagues, and students around me. What many people do not understand is that there are so many areas of math. For me in particular, I dislike statistics, but I enjoy discrete mathematics and abstract algebra. For students, some may be good at one aspect of math but dislike another. It is important for schools and math teachers to teach this, as many students believe that whether math is for them is a black and white concept. Students need to udnerstand that there is more than one way of doing math and so many branches to explore. The whole idea of math being either only liked or disliked (and nothing in between) is very demotivating and detrimental to students. When students believe that they are bad at something, they stop putting in effort and begin to perform worse, even if they weren't doing bad to begin with. As a prospective teacher, I hope to get this messafge across to students, that math is diverse and that there are many areas of explore, that some may interest you and others may not.