It's tough when a kid doesn't like you or your teaching style. I gave the students a self assessment yesterday so they could consider their understanding on each topic on an upcoming test. Then at the bottom I had a place for them to write down any areas of concern or difficulty. One student wrote something to the affect of...
"I don't think you're teaching very well. You just go over Bell Ringers at the beginning, go over the new stuff a little bit, and then assign homework. And I don't feel like the notes are helpful at all."
I immediately start to try to justify myself and place the blame back on this student. At least she was honest! I know I will always have students that don't like my teaching style. To be honest, what she said is exactly what I do. I do Bell Ringers first. Then I go over the new stuff a little bit, and assign homework. That's the routine that a high school math teacher often gets stuck in. I do have a couple of thoughts about this though.
1. This student has never asked a question during the notes.
2. I don't know what this student's notes actually look like.
3. I know that I don't show the students every single scenario they'll encounter, but I feel good about them having to apply what we learn about in class to different scenarios. I don't want the students to be hand fed the material so they can copy without using any intelligent thought. This could be why she's feeling like I'm not teaching very well. Many students can get frustrated when they have to figure out a homework problem rather than being able to see it and immediately know exactly how to do it. I try to encourage this kind of problem solving in class as well. I purposely did an example on Tuesday where the students had to take a kind of confusing angle pair relationship and solve the problem of how to represent each angle measure.
4. I may teach in a way that doesn't mesh well with her learning style. It happens...
*On a side note, I grouped kids today based on their self assessment data. I didn't use the same grouping strategy in every class because some classes are different. Giving them groups rather than letting them pick I think helped with their productivity in all classes except one. I need to find a way to help my 6th period learn how to better work in groups. I loved hearing the kids explain their thinking to each other. They were able to learn and teach each other a lot, and I felt like I was able to spend my time more effectively with the students who needed my help the most.
"I don't think you're teaching very well. You just go over Bell Ringers at the beginning, go over the new stuff a little bit, and then assign homework. And I don't feel like the notes are helpful at all."
I immediately start to try to justify myself and place the blame back on this student. At least she was honest! I know I will always have students that don't like my teaching style. To be honest, what she said is exactly what I do. I do Bell Ringers first. Then I go over the new stuff a little bit, and assign homework. That's the routine that a high school math teacher often gets stuck in. I do have a couple of thoughts about this though.
1. This student has never asked a question during the notes.
2. I don't know what this student's notes actually look like.
3. I know that I don't show the students every single scenario they'll encounter, but I feel good about them having to apply what we learn about in class to different scenarios. I don't want the students to be hand fed the material so they can copy without using any intelligent thought. This could be why she's feeling like I'm not teaching very well. Many students can get frustrated when they have to figure out a homework problem rather than being able to see it and immediately know exactly how to do it. I try to encourage this kind of problem solving in class as well. I purposely did an example on Tuesday where the students had to take a kind of confusing angle pair relationship and solve the problem of how to represent each angle measure.
4. I may teach in a way that doesn't mesh well with her learning style. It happens...
*On a side note, I grouped kids today based on their self assessment data. I didn't use the same grouping strategy in every class because some classes are different. Giving them groups rather than letting them pick I think helped with their productivity in all classes except one. I need to find a way to help my 6th period learn how to better work in groups. I loved hearing the kids explain their thinking to each other. They were able to learn and teach each other a lot, and I felt like I was able to spend my time more effectively with the students who needed my help the most.
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