Course Reflection

Another of the those fun courses I've taken this semester! This is the course that I have learned the most from, as we did so many different ways to integrate math into learning! I still didn't enjoy the math poetry, because again, I am "traumatized" from all of the poem memorizations when I was in China. But, I did enjoy learning about the nature of math and how math can be applied to everything that isn't math-related, such as dancing and drawing, which are seen as more creative than math-y. But to be honest, I still don't understand inquiry that well. I know that as a teacher, I need to reflect on my own teachings and see how much I have grown and what to improve on, but I still don't understand how it means to conduct inquiry-based learning. I'm guessing Building Thinking Classrooms has a part of it too, to engage students in questioning themselves and figuring out the answers with each other, instead of just listening to us. So I am excited to learn more about it during the rest of my career!

In terms of course feedback, I did enjoy us doing a bunch of different activities to help us explore what we liked and didn't like about using different ways to teach math. Again, I didn't enjoy using poetry in math, but I did enjoy charcoal drawing! That's the fun part about being open-minded and being willing to try everything at least once. I had an amazing time with all the math pedagogy courses together, so thank you so much! :)

Also! I have made plenty of short videos on my teaching journey thus far on my Instagram, so if anyone is interested, feel free to take a look! https://www.instagram.com/math.with.mr.c/

Inquiry Reflection

The topic of cheating as fascinated me ever since Kevin mentioned it in our EDCP 441 class! So for my inquiry project, I was really surprised by my findings. I was certain that students cheated to get higher grades, so I was absolutely baffled to see that most of them cheated due to a lack of preparation, and that all the motivations behind cheating is all over the place! I think that it is crucial to understand the motivation behind cheating, so we can discourage it, instead of finding the methods of cheating to catch it. The kids will always be smarter to find ways to cheat. Going forward, I want to allow students to allow a cheat sheet for them to bring to all their exams, where they can write whatever they want on the paper. I believe that it will discourage cheating because they are "already cheating." Of course, my exams would be focused on applications and problem solving, rather than rote memorization. So all in all, I had a pretty fun time on this project!

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1WjP_CjFbHpHm08CFIL69649N5UgbnLD1vyo7jGSkzEw/edit?usp=sharing

Inquiry Progress and Zero Exit Slip

I haven't had that much progress on my inquiry project other than finishing up my annotated bibliography, I've been focusing my efforts on other projects that are due earlier! I have started asking my teachers at Magee on their thoughts on cheating and such, but that's about it.

In terms of zero and division, here's what I wrote:

A divide can be anything that was split into smaller pieces, so food is probably one of the first things that came to my mind. However, many things in the world are also divided, like gender, religion, politics, all of those things seem to bring in more conflict than ever! No wonder why division is such a hard topic in math.

Zero is one of the most universal numbers in the world. No matter what bases that people have used, zero has always been needed to make things make sense. But in terms of daily life, zero is just nothing. Whether it be a lack of something or losing everything, it’s quite a powerful number that can mean so many things.

Kathryn Exit Slip

I wasn’t there for her lecture, but upon reading the Butterfly Catcher, which is the piece that I didn’t read, I am quite intrigued by her way of using art and dance in education. Her experience with her friend dying of AIDS is very intimate and touching, as she used dance as a way of honouring one’s life.

I see a big parallel of this article with the garden activity we did with drawing with charcoal. Everybody perceive themselves as someone who “isn’t good with math” or “isn’t an artist,” so it is reassuring to see Kathryn’s story about her experience with dance. In a classroom setting, it is crucial to dismantle the notion of “being bad at math.” It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that deeply affects one’s confidence, despite them being perfectly proficient in math themselves. So perhaps, I should be teaching my students the willingness to explore rather than being good at something. It feels subjective and “made up” a lot of the times.

Annotated Bibliography

https://youtu.be/P4Fig4NqF6c?si=Jrvsp6Ro-lDI59jZ

Bazett, T. (2022). YouTube. https://youtu.be/P4Fig4NqF6c?si=Jrvsp6Ro-lDI59jZ 

This is a YouTube video made by a university professor, who addresses the underlying issues of the academic environment, rather than shifting the blame on students themselves. It is interesting to hear from someone who actually had to deal with those kinds of issues.

https://www.meazurelearning.com/resources/what-are-the-negative-impacts-of-cheating-on-students-in-college 

Sieve, H. (2023, July 13). What are the negative impacts of cheating on students in college?. Meazure Learning. https://www.meazurelearning.com/resources/what-are-the-negative-impacts-of-cheating-on-students-in-college 

This blog touches on the impacts of those who cheated. To me, cheating is an interesting topic because at the end of the day, once we are done university, cheating on exams isn’t relevant anymore, it’s the consequences of the habit of cheating that would affect us. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMloyp6NI4E

Harvey, B. (2011). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMloyp6NI4E 

This is a YouTube video of a professor from UC Berkeley, who explains the consequences of one’s actions on cheating. It’s not about the reputation of the university or harming your peers, it’s about the habits you make when you are done university that shapes who you are. 

https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/usable-knowledge/23/07/embracing-artificial-intelligence-classroom

Ross, E. (2023, July 20). Embracing Artificial Intelligence in the classroom. Harvard Graduate School of Education. https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/usable-knowledge/23/07/embracing-artificial-intelligence-classroom 

This is an article from the Education program at Harvard, and it details the use of AI in the classroom. It suggests that AI should be used alongside the students, instead of against the students, and that our assessments can be dealt with by AI, then we are doing assessments wrong. 

https://doi.org/10.32996/ijels.2021.3.3.7 

Hammoudi, A., & Benzerroug, S. (2021). Cheating on exams: Dishonest or justifiable behaviour? International Journal of English Language Studies, 3(4), 79–88. https://doi.org/10.32996/ijels.2021.3.3.7 

This paper focuses on defending why students cheat, and whether or not they are justified to do so. It also touches on the cause and consequences of exam anxiety. 

https://dl6.globalstf.org/index.php/jed/article/viewFile/654/2732

Syam, M. I., & Al-Shaikh, F. (2013). The factors that lead to cheating in exams and how to avoid them. GSTF International Journal on Education Vol.1 No.2, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.5176/2345-7163_1.2.24 

This paper talks about a general summary of the possible reasons why students cheat. This study also had a very wide range of demographics for their students. 

https://doi.org/10.1080/10508422.2022.2026775

Waltzer, T., & Dahl, A. (2022). Why do students cheat? perceptions, evaluations, and motivations. Ethics & Behavior, 33(2), 130–150. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508422.2022.2026775 

This paper had a few very specific case studies with a very thorough method and discussion for each. It also relate teaching to academic integrity. 

https://doi.org/10.1080/00131720708984924

Strom, P. S., & Strom, R. D. (2007). Cheating in Middle School and High School. The Educational Forum, 71(2), 104–116. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131720708984924 

This one was assigned by Kevin in the EDCP 441 class, which was when I first started becoming interested in this topic. It’s a nice general overview of the topic.

Teen Pregnancy Entrance Slip

Before reading anything, I would like to acknowledge that I see teen mothers as people who made bad decisions in their life. However, I can’t fault anyone other than their parents, but even then, some of those folks may not have positive adult figures in their life. Though of course, I also understand that a lot of teen mothers became so against their will, which I feel awful about. I’m sure reading this article would change my mind, but I like to acknowledge my point of view before reading this.

And now, after reading the article, I very much appreciate the courage that teen mothers show going through school. Through all of the stigma around them, and the struggles of always being the outsider, it must have been awfully hard on them. I feel guilty too, since I also treated them as just kids who made bad choices, but that is an insensitive perspective to have as an educator. I also appreciate the perspective of inclusivity in this sense too, I have never considered the inclusivity aspect of teen pregnancy, I have only focused on topics such as race and sexuality. It is also our duty to support them as much as we can, with the help of resources such as SSSC. This article definitely opened my eyes to the struggles of those folks, and I have glad Ricketts was able to bring their stories to light. Social media have also perpetuated discrimination against teen pregnancy, treating it as more of a plot device rather than a serious issue that some people actually face. So all in all, I am glad to see this perspective, and I really do admire those teenagers who have more responsibility than many of the adults out there.

Inquiry Topics Exit Slip

That was quite a fun discussion! It was interesting to see everybody’s own ideas and especially the ideas that everybody shared to each other during their turn. I also think that it is interesting we have an idea what all of us would be writing about before they shared it. I’m sure I have plenty of resources that I will find during my research, and I am very excited to hear everyone’s else’s. This whole process made me realize despite us being in the same cohort, all of us have such wildly different ideas on how to improve our own learning as teachers.

As for me, I have no idea how to even tackle the whole idea of cheating. I think that it is inevitable, and is even glorified in social media, so it would be quite an interesting dive into a surprisingly well-researched topic. I was also very glad to see the sheer amount of resources available for this topic on google scholar, so hopefully I wouldn’t have too much difficulty figuring it out!

Body Measurements Exit Slip

That was a pretty interesting exercise to say the least! I learned a lot about the relevance of the imperial measurement system, and why many people still use it today. I have often heard that this system is very useful for those in the trades industries, since it’s a fast way to measure, say the width of a wooden plank, with just your fingers instead of needing a measuring device. As a biologist, it is also fun to see that many ancient civilizations have already discovered the body proportion ratios and such, so this was a very fun exercise that I would do in my measurements unit. My favourite measurement is still the wingspan to body height ratio being close to 1:1. So knowing that I am 1.72m tall, I have used my wingspan to measure a bunch of stuff, especially in IKEA. Those will be fun tricks to make my students appreciate how practical and fun could be!

Inquiry Project

I would like to do my project on the motivation of students cheating, and the effects that cheating have on their development. We talked about cheating in our EDCP 442 class, and I was genuinely so fascinated about it. I remember cheating in a science quiz when I was in high school, so it is very interesting for me to come back to this as an adult on the other side. We learned that some of the main motivations behind cheating is that the students want to get into a good school, and that they assumed everybody else is cheating. I also want to know what the effects of cheating is in terms of development, since cheating is essentially a habit. If the students were getting away with cheating in high school, they might make a habit out of it, and start to cheat in real life. And lastly, I want to touch on what we can do as educators to discourage such behaviour. I know the whole concept of marks is to blame, but I want to find out more on how we can combat this :)

Marking Debate Exit Slip

Personally, I am not a big debater. So I wasn't a fun of the activity, but I never knew that I am pretty good at setting the scene and being confident to express my thoughts!

But unfortunately, the debate did feel one-sided, since all of us have the mindset of marks being outdated. Especially right after watching a video on how marks are detrimental to students learning, I feel like all of us TCs already have the pre-conceived notion of the effects of marks not being an effective tool of assessing students.

Though I think the debate was important to illustrate the good parts of marking, and why we should keep marking. Since being a teacher isn't always black or white, it was pretty valuable to see the other side and figure out what we can come to to meet in the middle.

So again, not a big fan of the activity because I don't like debates, but still glad that we did it regardless to see both sides of the marking perspective :)

Drawing in the Garden Exit Slip

(Don’t mind me writing this a month late lol)

I really enjoyed the drawing experience, since I have never drawn anything with charcoal before. I have been doodling for most of my life, usually on notes and stuff, so I have always enjoyed drawing. I like to draw characters, from video games and such, so I didn’t have a lot of experience drawing nature things. So from this experience, I enjoyed the process of sitting in nature and just drawing things I can see, especially my classmates :)

Though, in terms of math, I didn’t think the drawing exercise was super related. I think it’s more useful as an example, rather than a lesson. I loved the idea of “being bad at drawing,” but as you draw, it doesn’t really matter how good you are. I like the relationship between that and math, since a lot of people assume that they are “not at math.” I also thought it was interesting to see rigid edges of human-made objects versus the curves and stuff in nature. I dropped my biology teachable, but if I were to ever teach biology, I think this would be a perfect exercise! I can get my students to draw something in nature, and talk about why nature doesn’t have a lot of straight lines (biology favours high surface areas, which is why we don’t see straight edges). 

So all in all, a fun exercise, I don’t think I will use it in a math class, but it is a great lesson to learn in terms of “being bad at drawing.”

Effects of Grading Entrance Slip

Grades are such an interesting topic, on one hand, students are motivated by grades, but on the other hand, they are motivated because they are stressed about getting good grades. At the end of the day, the stress of grades is trickled down from post-secondary institutions. Because they want to see high grades from their students, the students, their parents, and us teachers all want to make sure that they are all good enough to meet those requirements. Grades feel very dehumanizing, as it just comes down to whether or not a student has gotten a checkmark or not for answering questions properly. Math is very logical and objective, making it an easy subject to assign marks to, but math is also very easy once you’ve memorized all the patterns. I was able to get into BEd with my math grades because I did so many practice exams, but since I didn’t really “learn” everything, I have forgotten almost everything I’ve learned in upper-level math, especially on proofs. I was very stressed about my grades just to get into BEd, even though my teaching experience is more than enough. So to me, grades is just a formality type of thing, it really doesn’t matter. Employers don’t care if I can prove Fermat’s Little Theorem, they just want to know if I can be a good teacher. It feels like a traditional thing that we all have to follow by even though it’s becoming less and less relevant.

From a teacher point of view, grades are the easy way to assess a student. I would love to use Canvas or WebWork so I don’t have to do the marking at all. But, I know that the students wouldn’t learn anything and only be motivated by green check marks. Math is such a beautiful language, it is such a shame to see so many students treat it as a subject to score high marks on. The problem feels exasperated by the math tutoring companies out there too. It’s always “Mathnesium,” “Math4Me,” “Math Tutor School,” and “Kumon.” I rarely see biology tutors or even English tutors, it just feels like math is a subject dedicated to grades. 

And speaking of which, grades should be a measurement of competency, but mastery. Getting 100% shouldn’t be about knowing 100% of the material, it should indicate that the student is ready to move onto the next topic. It should be a form of feedback to let the students how they are doing, instead of something they stress over to pursue. As mentioned in the article, students feel fulfillment through intrinsic motivators, and I think it’s up to us to help them understand that grades don’t mean much as long as you are learning new things. Even with EDCP 441, I still am unsure of how to tackle assessment without grades, but that’s something that I am looking forward to finding out :)

Also, I love how Charlie in the article mentioned a MP3 player as a reward… made me realize that this paper was published in 2010…

Math Poems Exit Slip

As mentioned in class, I didn’t enjoy the activity because I just don’t enjoy poetry in general. I find them confusing, hard to understand, and a bit traumatizing from my education in China. I still think they are a vital part of language and society, just not my cup of tea :)

Here are the haikus I wrote as I was sitting by the cabbage field across from Teij in the distance:

(Words)

Teij sits across from me

Cold autumn chills and gentle winter breezes

Teij shivers across from me

(Syllables)

Sprouting from the earth

Flower of lettuce, big green leaves

Hotpot udon soup

Braiding Sweetgrass Entrance Slip

Reading this article makes me feel arrogant somewhat, that I’ve never considered the scientific terminology from an indigenous perspective. I really like the way scientific terms name things, because as long as you know the root word, you can kinda guess what the term means. If it starts with “osteo-,” it would be bone related, if it starts with “octo-,” it would be something of 8. However, now thinking about it, English is a very dumb language. It is very hard to learn with so many different forms, conjugations, tenses, and all that. Being my second language and my third spoken language, it took be quite a while to learn English, so I can’t imagine someone who doesn’t understand English trying to break into such an English-dominated field. I enjoy using scientific terminology because it makes sense to me after being in the BC curriculum for so long, but honestly, it’s a lot of dead white men. Measuring temperature? We have Celsius. The forces that dedicate motion? We have Newton’s Laws. Some theorem that I still don't understand after learning number theory? We have Fermat’s Little Theorem (that is a cute name though). If I discover something, I would never name it the “Leon Theorem” or the “Chen Theorem,” because I didn’t make this up, I stood on the shoulders of giants to help me get to this point. I think that it is unfair to base a discover on one person, since it is a collaborative effort made by scientists through millennia. This is how I feel about our terminology, it’s very simple and straightforward to someone with background in it, but to an outside person, it’s confusing and hard to learn, with some White supremacy mixed in.

It’s sad to see that only 9 people could speak Potawatomi, and there are definitely many languages that were driven to extinction due to residential schools. So I want to subtly introduce those languages to my class. I want to work in the Coquitlam School District (I want to grow up away from my hometown White Rock, but can’t afford Vancouver), and that Land belongs to the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm people, who speaks the language of hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓. So, in the classroom, or in assessment, I will use questions in the lines of “in the land of the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm People, which is where our school is resided, there sits 4 herons on a piece of land in səmiq̓ʷəʔelə, which is the land specifically used for roosting grounds for herons. Your task is to find the optimal area for each heron given the following restrictions:” I think it’s a way to normalize using indigenous knowledge, while assessing the students fairly in a math context. Again, I don’t know much about this Land, but I want to learn as much as the students do. And of course, tying back (haha) to the rope weaving activity, I want to encourage my students to make projects based on indigenous knowledge, while incorporating what we’ve learned in math. This would also be an excuse for me to learn from the students on indigenous knowledge and decorate my classroom. So both selfishly and out of curiosity, I see a great value of indigenizing my classroom.

Rope Exercise Exit Slip

That was so fun!! Too bad I didn’t take any pictures, but I had a lot of fun just weaving two strands of fibre back and forth. It’s very relaxing, but feels very productive since I am getting something out of it. Like I mentioned in class, I think that this is a very good activity for folks who have ADHD, or just fidgety in general. It helps them be productive while connecting with the indigenous practices in some ways. When I kept learning about how the new BC curriculum incorporates indigenous knowledge into the material, I didn’t know how to go about it. But it is very interesting to see weaving and knotting techniques still being passed down. In terms of learning math, I can see my students weaving patterns with different colours to visualize concepts like fractions, number theory, or even algorithms. I am so excited to see the creativity of my students, since math is definitely one of those subjects seen as the “boring” and “non-creative” ones. There is so much amazing indigenous art out there that students can use to engage in their creative brain, and to be honest, I want to learn more as well. I am personally not someone who connect with the indigenous culture, but by doing projects like those, I find myself getting more involved. The math art decorations in the classroom are super cute, makes me feel at home, yet in a professional classroom, so it would be very fun to have my classroom decked out like that too. So the main takeaway here is that even though I am still not very familiar with incorporating indigenous knowledge into math, this makes me excited to learn! :)

Common Threads Entrance Slip

Out of all the cities in Lower Mainland, Vancouver, especially the UBC campus, definitely feels like a very walkable cities. But as we go further out, to places such as White Rock or even the suburbs in the US, most of the infrastructural is built for cars. In White Rock, we have around 4 bus lines, while most of our commercial buildings are reserved for massive parking lots. Though convenient, it is worth pondering the fact that these cities are more so built for consumption than production. We have all accepted that that how society is run, but we forget the way that we want to live our lives. This leads me to the biggest stop of this article, that we have outsourced our survival to other people. We have grown reliant, and perhaps entitled, to have other people take care of us for us. We are losing what made us survive millions of years by giving this problem to other people, so I love the idea of backsourcing items that we need. I have made small crafts out of recyclable materials instead of buying what I needed, and it’s always been more satisfying. Saving the environment and other grand ambitions shouldn’t be the reason why we make other own products, it should come from a sense of self-fulfillment.

While making the seven-braid, it almost felt nostalgic. Despite my financial support from my parents, I have always found joy in frugality. If I don’t need it, then I don’t want it. So in terms of practicality, I have made many small crafts. Currently, I am working on making a cable management bin out of an unused shoebox, so I don’t have to worry about them tangling up anymore. The feeling of making something artistic yet practical brings joy to me since not only am I saving money, it’s also just very fun. There are plenty of old shirts I would like to make into a scarf or a tote bag, and there are plenty of possible things to make using traditional knowledge. It’s important to never forget what we have made since the beginning, because that is what makes us human, not the big metal boxes that we drive around.

Gardening and Sundials Exit Slip

I was not there for the gardening session with Madi, but it looked very fun! Just seeing those beautiful crops pulled out of the ground brings me a lot of joy, as someone with a green thumb myself. I have been taking care of houseplants, and my parents’ lawn for a while now, and it is always so satisfying to see the “fruits” of our labour. In terms of teaching in a garden, I think that no matter the subject, it’s important to help the students to wind down after a stressful day of school. It is very nerve-wrecking for teenagers to study for 6 hours a day, while getting only a small break during lunch. I feel that when I am in the garden, it is very zen, a little getaway from the noisiness of school.

And now, for the sun dial activity, it was so cool! It was very fun to learn about our sun and how solstices work. The most important part in this activity is really to just move around. It is very engaging to be able to stand up, wave our arms a bit, get loose, do some silly poses, while learning about the nature. Those exercises feel like a way to do Land Learning without all the reading and studying. It is a nice change of pace to get away from all the concrete, and to learn about the glowing yellow dot in the sky. I believe that learning math is all about understanding how to problem solve, so in activities like those, they give students opportunities to figure things out themselves, which is often the fun part. It is also a very low-stakes environment, where no marks are given out, they just get the time to be creative or to wind down. I would probably enforce a no-phone rule here to help them get the most out of this :)

Teaching & Learning Gardens

My first stop is a pretty small one… I never knew that learning gardens have been popping up all over universities over the past few years! This is the first time I’ve seen this concept, so I didn’t expect this to be so widespread (definitely glad that it is, and I wish I had this in high school). My biggest stop is the statement of showing respect for living ecosystems as co-teachers, which relates to my own beliefs and studies. Throughout my undergrad as a biology major (and math minor, that’s how I am here hahaha), I loved learning about ecology! I have always been fascinated by the relationships between organisms and nature, and how every creature on this planet can be interconnected somehow. Learning in a garden has made me appreciate nature way more than I have been in school. It is also interesting to see that the first thing that planners think of are the plastic chairs, metal sound systems, and rubber electrical wires. It feels like technology and human-made objects are so intertwined with our lives, and we are becoming more disconnected with nature. It is sad to see that land has become a motivation for profit rather than part of nature, but by connecting with our lands like this, I have high hopes of creating a future generation that understands the value of nature beyond corporate greed.

In terms of teaching math in the garden, I would love to do the “harder” topics, such as calculus and probability (it might be easy for other people, but I am VERY BAD at probability). The biggest value I see in the garden is the whole nature aspect, and how there are always things to look at in the garden. I remember getting so excited when we saw the hummingbird in the garden, so I want to have that experience as well with my students. I want to be able to share random animal facts while covering difficult topics, to loosen the stress that the students must be feeling. Garden learning will also be quite valuable to students with exceptionalities, since there are always things happening in nature, the more restless folks will get a chance to let off steam. The main struggle I see is to get all 30 students outside while keeping an eye on them. And of course, the weather and carrying out the supplies will be a huge hustle as well. However, I think it’ll be fun for the students to carry all of those things with me. This will be a small cooperative task for all of us, and make them feel included as well. Now, the only struggle is the Raincouver weather, so I will be enjoying the garden whenever I can!

Reflective Teacher Entrance Slip

This article definitely struck a chord when the authors brought up the idea of “routine action.” This doesn’t only apply to teaching, since I feel like there were definitely points in my life when I just didn’t feel fulfilled. I would do the same routine everyday, and lose a sense of purpose, so I very much resonated with the article when they addressed that non reflective teachers who perform routine action eventually forget the purposes of their work. The idea of “reflective action” and being a reflective teacher is still very relevant not just for teachers, but for living a fulfilling life in general. As a teacher candidate, I enjoy the idea of learning about teaching and continuously improving the way I teach through reflection and open-mindedness. I think that learning doesn’t stop when I become a teacher, I actually end up learning more and more. And the first step is to learn more about myself and the type of teacher I want to be, since the article also mentioned that me as a teacher will always be changing. It’s also interesting how the article mentioned reflection on the administrative side of teaching, since many teachers are said to be just follow along the school systems and not bothering to reflect on their own teaching. It is saddening to see the story of Mary Smith, where she refused to teach a class of students just because they are below the standardized grade level. I absolutely don’t want to be a teacher like that, so it is an eye-opening moment that encourages me to be more reflective. The most outdated information I can think of is the integration of modern technology in the classroom and in our daily routine. I believe the being reflective may have been harder now that technology and social media have been taking all the free time we have. Being bored is the primary way for me and many others to reflect on ourselves, but the addition of technology feels like it’s adding more unnecessary stimulation to an already fast-paced work environment. However, being connected to more educators around the world bring more good than harm I am able to read their stories from around the globe instead of just from my local educators. Overall though, I believe that technology does make the reflective teachers shine through more shared experiences and a more welcoming atmosphere for new teacher candidates like us.

It’s quite insightful to read about the three attitudes of reflective action, and motivates me to push myself to be a better teacher. I am looking forward to be humbled by my students and mentors, as I have so much more to learn despite being an educator for many years. I am curious to see how my responsibilities of a teacher will play out, since I already feel so different from the math teachers I had in my high school. And I am happy to reflect on myself to continuously improve wholeheartedly, since I chose this career to fulfill what I think is right for the future. This article is empowering, as it touches upon such a fundamental skill that I want to improve upon: self-reflection.

Class 1 (Sep. 5) Exit Slip

The idea that struck to me the most from McCourt’s interview was that the teacher is always learning. It is inspirational to think that just like the students, the teacher is always learning with them, just like any regular human would. I found the text interview with McCourt especially insightful, when he mentioned a little girl he taught told him to “chill out.” From my teaching experiences, I have always tried to not take things too seriously, and to let go of being overly controlling. So it is reassuring to see that even someone like McCourt learned that too. I agree that honesty is one of the most important qualities of a teacher, since students, like the ones that McCourt taught, can see right through us if we are wearing a mask. It’s also humbling to see that even role models like him had to start somewhere and learn from scratch, which makes our own teaching journey quite relatable. Of course, this leaves me with the question of how much chilling out is too much? I would want to be that “chill math teacher,” but the grey area of boundaries and authorities do worry me. That’s why I am here to learn like everyone else I guess :)