Let’s first examine my seventh grade fear of not wanting to be challenged. As a student enters a math class how challenged should they be? One aspect about this is that certain students can handle being pressured or being challenged much easier than others. While some students rise to the challenge, others will completely shut down. This then makes it difficult to formulate a blanket statement about how students should be academically challenged. However, educators can counter attack this issue by making a conscious effort to challenge all student in their classroom. I have yet to have a class where all students had the same level of understanding. The class’s understanding has always fit under a bell curve. Perhaps, all that an educator can do is properly communicate with a student why or why not they are not accepting a challenge, such as being in a higher level class or not performing at their best. Of course, finding the time to have these conversations is challenge within it self.

The other emotion I had related to a placement test was the intimidation I experienced after being placed into my college calculus class. I believe that this one is very common in the developmental math classes. The math taught in these courses range from fourth grade to ninth grade material. So when a student who does not take the placement test serious and gets put into a class that is lower than they believe they should be, often these student make comments that can be intimidating for other students. For example, they might say, “I know this, it so easy!” or “Can I just do the short cut?” or “Come on who really does not know this stuff?” This perspective of people being better than me or me being better than others is common in the classroom. This might be shedding light to the confidence level of a student, which in math class can be large barrier. Again, the main issue here is how the developmental level of the learner side can have a tremendous impact on a student. For me, I would say that I did not truly develop into a college student until late sophomore year. It took me a year and half to mature out of my high school habits. Academically I was prepared but as learner I was not. As a result, I did not know how to handle others being ahead of me and how to manage challenges. Hopefully, I share my experience with students who are in the same boat. Then they might become aware of how the math is not intimidating them, rather it is the discomfort of not knowing how to handle a challenge or a difficulty.

I never had to take a placement test for my master’s of math program. The GRE is a some what of a placement test but it is not specifically designed to place students in a certain class. It used to measure the requirments of a college. Yet, suppose I was required to take a math placement test. Would I be able to test into graduate level math classes? After teaching 8th grade math for five years, I can only imagine how difficult it would have been for me. For instance, a graduate level math course is Analysis. It is an intense version of calculus and the last time I took a calculus course was about eight years. As the saying goes, if you don’t use it then you will loose it; and it was pretty much gone from my brain. So does this mean that if I am going to take graduate level courses that I need to be efficient with my calculus skills? Re-taking those classes could set me back a year, which translates to more money for a masters. Again, my current students who are taking developmental math could be thinking the same thing. “I have to take all of these low level courses, that don’t count for any credit, even before I take my required math class?” I cannot fairly comment on the pros and cons pertaining to these developmental courses due to my small experience teaching them. The most important thing I can do is to share my own experiences and to continue reflecting on the level impact it has on my students.

Question #1: Overall, I would rate this instructor as excellent.

For those students that responded with disagree does this meant that they feel that I am not quite excellent, such as good or great? Or do they feel that I am terrible? If the students agreed, then what does excellent mean? The issue with question is that it is set up to be all or nothing. I am either excellent or not. Perhaps a student could first define an “excellent instructor”. Then I could easily see how I am or not meeting their definition.

Question #2: Overall, I would rate this course as excellent.

Again, the question is very vague and it does not allow a proper critique of my classroom. I doubt that if McDonald’s was taking a survey they would ask, “Overall, I would rate McDonald’s as excellent.” Their questions would be clear and to the point. Therefore, a definition of excellent classroom is certainly needed. Maybe another series of questions could be this. What type of learning style do you believe you are? How do you think this class is reaching your learning style? How do you think this class is not reaching your learning style? Questions like these could possibly expose the strengths and weaknesses of my classroom, thus giving me specific areas to improve.

Question #3: I learned a great deal in this course.

This College Algebra course consists mostly of material that students have already seen in high school. So if a student does strongly disagree with this question, then they could be responding from the fact that they already knew the information being taught. Or their disagreement could be rooted in a lack of growth in understanding. I suggest that there be a question that asks the student how much of the material they were already familiar with. Plus, the phrase a “great deal” is different for many.

Question #4: The instructor had a valuable influence on me while in college.

Is this possible during just one semester? For those students that agreed, I would have to question them how. If I was truly to be an influence while their in college, I would still be impacting them even after completing my class. I say this because if someone is to have an influence on another, then the greatest influence is when that individual is on not there to motivate or pressure them. I think the question should take out “in college” and replace it with “attending the course”. Also, I am curious of what valuable influences I making on my students. Having them make a list of valuable influences would allow me to gain a deeper understanding of what I am doing in the classroom has the greatest impact.

Question #5: The instructor made class stimulating and challenging.

I like this question because one of my goals is to create a class that is stimulating and challenging for students and myself. However, I wonder how many students view challenging as impossible or too hard? Again, I am running into how subjective these questions are. Is it possible to write a fill in the blank evaluation that is not subjective? YES! But, that could involve re-writing the entire evaluation, which I am thinking may not be too bad of an idea.

Question #6: The instructor met class as scheduled.

Finally, a question clear and to the point. I had to laugh though when I saw that one student marked strongly disagree, another marked disagree, and also one for undecided. I did miss one class due to the birth of my son and I showed up to class a minute or so late a couple of times. Yet does my attendance warrant a strongly agree or agree? Well, 58\% (25/43) of my students marked agree. This percentage makes me question just how different is the response “agree” from “strongly agree”. Maybe I should lump these responses into three categories: no, I don’t know, and yes. Let us go back to the student that marked strongly disagree. A response like this, one that make no sense, reveals a possible instance of a student not reading the questions and simply filling in circles randomly. How often does this happen? Should these evaluations be voluntary? Not requiring students might take care of those who do not want to offer any input. Or if the evaluations had open response questions, it would deter students from just filling in circles randomly. Another possibility is that students feel that their opinions will not be heard or that they will not be respected.

I have only examined 6 of the 19 questions but looking at the other 13, I feel that the points stated above would be repeated. The thing is that I have already gathered input, concerning the class, from students all through semester. At the half way point, students wrote a one page, single spaced reflection about the class. This assignment had a huge impact on how I taught the rest of the semester and I feel that students felt like they were being heard. However, these evaluations offer little guidance on how I could improve my class or what I should keep doing. Maybe I am taking these evaluations too serious and I am trying to use in way that they were not intended. I guess they could be part of a procedure that is required by the university. This is fine. But why not optimize the evaluations, or in other words, kill two birds with one stone? I believe that we should use the evaluations to their greatest potential with our students so that we as educators can be at or beyond our greatest potential.

I read more and more about the opportunities of how computers can be integrated in the classroom and how the internet can connect students around the world. Almost daily I discover teacher blogs and witnessed first hand students making podcasts, creating dynamic presentations, and sharing their creativity on the internet. I have written in other reflections how I desire to take advantage of these technologies in my classroom. However, I must accept that I am hesitant of taking that technology leap.

One aspect I would like to further examine is how to introduce this. Some of my student have not been in school for twenty-years and they have been rarely using computers during this time. Immersing them into two unfamiliar ares could be very overwhelming for a student and I could be the life guard with a lack of experience with situation like these. This combination could result in a drowning for both. But this is an extreme, and I imagine that chance for extreme success is just as likely. The second aspect is that I do not want to make the students dependent on it. Forty years ago I can only imagine that there had to be a few individuals contemplating this same perspective with the calculator. True, the calculator is an amazing tool for mathematics. But I want to create an awareness within my students that this tool, just like many other resources, can enhance understanding and easily become a crutch. Overall, how do I develop my teaching practices with technology so that my students creativity is not dependent on the technology or overwhelmed by it?

Creativity is usually talked about in fields of art and music. (Strange how these programs are being cut from schools, but creativity in the form of technology is now being pushed into schools.) I have yet to hear a parent, including myself, say, “Wow! That kid is really creative. They should be a mathematician.” I think a common perception is that people can only apply creativity towards being an artist or a musician, even though math takes just as much creativity. Math is not the only subject that is ignored for its creativity, there are many fields in this boat. However, technology is allowing this stereotype to be dissolved. Yet I question if this will be the only way to broadcast the creativity in these fields? Perhaps not. Once people start to observe the excitement and production on the internet, then they possibly might want to continue expressing it in their public lives as well. Now I am not suggesting that there will soon be a bunch of math clowns being hired for birthday parties. (Except maybe for my son’s!) But now that I think about it, I do not even know what other types of creativity could be possible. Maybe more Math competitions at public schools. I guess I need to reflect more on how my students can express their math creativity outside the classroom. The internet sounds like a good start though.

I guess what I am trying to express is that I do not want my students to say that they cannot work on math because they do not have their calculator. Similarly, I do not want students to say they cannot present their math because they do not have a computer. All of these thoughts could stem from my reluctance to first try the computer technology in my classroom. I do not feel that I am being cynical but I am fearful about taking that initial plunge. Even though it is important to be aware of an issue before diving into it, I need to make sure that it does not manifest into a permanent excuse. Basically, I need to let my own creativity with the computers be an example of how my students can be engaged mathematically with the awesome technology at hand.

Next week I will be expanding my teaching experience by teaching at a Community College.  This comes after being in graduate school for two years and being away from participating in professional development activities.  When I taught at a middle school, teachers were required to fulfill a specific amount of credits for professional development.  This included attending workshops that could be away from or at school, along with a few other activities.  True these were mostly beneficial; however I developed more professionally from attending conferences, such as NCTM, because I could receive a first hand experience of what effective educators were doing in their classrooms.  But now I can easily accomplish this daily via internet by reading blogs, listening to podcasts, or watching online videos. The accessibility to enhance teaching practices makes me wonder what type of impact this will have on the professional development market. Hopefully, the impact will not be negative; rather it should expand the market. Just as technology should not be a substitute for a teacher, neither should it be for professional development. With this said, I still question how much of my professional development will be recognized. Should a blog such as this be credited towards earning professional development credits? I believe so. A blog is a written record of development plus it has the opportunity to reach an extensive audience. Compare this with speaking at a conference where the information is shared with a few and then it is over. This does not mean that one is better than the other. Yet, the comparison reveals how each way can effectively communicate important practices being implemented in the classroom.

As I re-enter the realm of being a full time teacher, I want reflect on opportunities of professional development.  A short list of choices include publishing to and/or reading journals, attending and/or speaking at conferences, reading and/or contributing to the blogsphere, and participating in workshops.  Perhaps I have only been focusing on how I can develop as a professional teacher, ignoring the possibility that I can develop as a professional student too.  That is how can I expect myself to make a greater impact on my students if I am only attempting to expand as a teacher?  Likewise, should a principal continue to expand themselves only as an administrator?  Will a principal begin to loose touch of them self as teacher, thus creating a separation between the teachers that they are working with.  If this is true, then it would appear that I must make a conscious effort to explore and expand myself as both a teacher and a student since only then I can relate to them as a student and impact them as a teacher. Furthermore, a teacher usually begins to fulfill many roles. I know that for myself I have had to be more than a math teacher. Parent, motivator, counselor, and janitor are just a few other roles I have chosen to be. Overall, being a teacher, as most educators would probably agree, is basically a jack of all trades type of profession and trying to develop all of these trades would be overwhelming, (which may be why many teachers leave after a couple of years). Therefore, I want to be aware that there are numerous areas that I can enhance myself when I choose my professional development.

The end of the semester is here and as a result so are the grades for my students. Grades are just one aspect of education that can hold a wide range of emotions. On one side is a student that gives them self a stomach ulcer because of stressing over their grade and on the other is a student who appears to purposely try to earn the lowest grade possible. The parents, who commonly reflect their children, are on the exact same spectrum. There are those parents that will strategically battle over a few points and then there are those who take no responsibility in their child’s grade. I must admit that I am out of touch with the parent side since I now teach college students. However, constantly I witness similar attitudes towards grades from eighth graders as with college students, suggesting a trend or habit that student’s carry through their education experience. In the same light, my perspective towards grades is the same as when I taught eighth grade. Is this fair? Should my attitude towards grades be dependent on the level of the students that I am teaching? What I do notice is how my attitude towards grades when I was student easily transferred over to when I first began teaching. How common is this? Do teacher’s perspectives about grades stem from their perception as a student? Well, I guess to truly understand how I feel about grades is to accept that currently I have only viewed them as student and now is the moment for me to define my perspective as a teacher.

Grades are those things that I have yet been able to to effectively use a tool. My grade turnout usually follows the bell curve, meaning the lump of my grades fall range from a D to a B, and then F’s and A’s scatter the edges. I have never taken a moment to reflect on how my grading mirror any possible personal or educational beliefs I may have. I want to be clear with myself that I am not reflecting on the philosophy of grades. Grades are just one way to assess a student and I believe that there is no difference in giving them a check system, an alphabet scheme, a four point rubric scale, etc. because each is attaching a value to student’s academic success. I want the reflection to be guided on how I personally view the numerical value of grades, the possible indications from a student’s grade, and how the distribution of grades can be a service in improving the impact of an assignment or the class as a whole.

One issue with grades is that each person in education, teacher, students, administration, parents, legislation, etc, can have a different perspective about what a specific grade means for them. For instance, a teacher may interpret an A differently from how a parent views an A. This can cause confrontations such as when student earns an A in math three years straight and is expected to continue this trend in my class. Yet, a student earning an A in my class might be like a student earning a B in another class or vice versa. This makes me question if a school should use a school wide rubric of grade interpretation. But this task seems to constrain a teacher from implementing their own unique ways of challenging their students. One teacher may push their students in one area while another challenges them in a different area. This adds diversity to the school are able to be themselves when teaching. Overall, it is important for me to communicate with other teachers about how they are grading their students so that I can compare if my method is appropriate. Then I am not being stagnate in perspective, rather I am challenging myself about how I grade, and at the same time, I am providing teachers the opportunity to do the same.

Some times I appreciate those students who will not put forth effort towards my assignments more than those who blindly complete the assignment with flying colors. These non-working students challenge me on how I can improve the assignment because if I can them involved then most likely all other students will follow. Yet, both students are sort of in the same group because the both blindly perceives the assignment out of habit. Either they blindly do it or the blindly don’t do it. Therefore, a goal of mine is to create assignments that student toss their blinders on the side and work towards an exploration of understanding instead of the thought of completion. Then their grade can possibly represent understanding and not just work ethic. When this does occur, the grades are usually high. But then I have this peculiar concept that my class is too easy if the majority of students are earning A’s. Are grades able to be an indicator of the difficulty of a class? I just had a student tell me “That had to be one of the hardest classes but I learned a lot.” His grade was a B, and I could see another student making the same statement but earning a F, D, C or A. I should point out how I was thinking that I made the class too easy to earn a B. So perhaps I need to be aware that I have an erroneous belief about correlating grades with the difficulty level in my classes. Only trying to make my classes more challenging when there are too many A’s is not what I do. I always want to discover ways to challenge my students through math and as a human, and my motivation to accomplish this should not be based grades.

I have to take an honest moment here to reflect on whether I truly want my students to earn A’s in my classroom. On one hand it seems like if a student is earning A’s in my classroom then they are reaching a deep understanding of the topic and that they do not need me anymore in helping them learn. Again, I appear to revealing an ironic aspect of my class. I say that I want to develop independent learners, meaning that I do not want them to solely depend on me for their learing. However, it seems like I am able to take them right to the edge but my perception of grades is my final attachment that prevents them from taking an independent flight of academic success. Why I am uncomfortable with this idea of pushing students to reacher academic heights? Commonly students will ask me what their score is on an assesement by saying “Is it good or bad?”. My reply is, “I don’t know what is a good score for you and what is a bad score for you.” My intent for this to not offer students my judgment. I want bring awareness to how they are judging themselves towards the outcome of an assessment. This scenario also shows how I can distance myself from a student’s grade. Finally, the most important point is how as student I fell in the middle of the grade spectrum. I was able to succeed in my schooling, but I never took the risk in earning grades that required more effort. I was more comfortable sticking with the grades I knew I could get and the possible failure of not reaching that higher grade was masked by the thought of “Well I could do it if I wanted to.” Now, as a teacher, relating to all of my students about grades is difficult because as a student I have not experienced the highs or the lows in the grading spectrum. My parents influenced me to do my best, however they never encouraged me challenge my understanding and my study habits in order to reach a higher garde. I continue this perspective with my students and my lack of experience makes it difficult for me to motivate and push students to their next level. But now that it is in my awareness, I can make it a goal for me to reach.

This reflection was different from my others. I did a collaboration with Angela Quiram, who runs the blog Teaching in the Twenty-First Century, and she proposed the reflection topic, “What do you do to encourage your kids to continue learning through the end of the year?”. Next, I emailed her a list of questions as a possible outline for our reflection. Finally, we connected via Skype, which I recorded, and then reflected for about thirty minutes.

The reflection outcome was extremely enriching for myself since I was given the opportunity to have some one else offer input and challenge personal beliefs. True, I try to do this with all of my reflections but the fact remains that it is still my perspective. What I appreciated most was how the reflection felt very honest and true and that none of the answers appeared to be candid. Perhaps this is an advantage of reflecting with a “stranger”. Since I will not see her tomorrow at work or possibly ever, I can spill my educational heart, allowing me to reveal the true identity of my educational beliefs, as if I was talking to the school guidance counselor. Now there is an empowering idea; a school counselor that reflects with teachers. Overall, I want to thank Angela for making this reflection a priority by offering her time and thoughts. After talking to Angela in person, I discovered that she was just as insightful and genuine as she appears on her blog.

The recorded reflection can be heard in the podcast version. The audio from our conversation is not the greatest but after a while the distortion turns into white noise. Hopefully, people are able to put the poor quality of the audio to the side because the reflection has a wealth of information. If not, I have written just some of highlights.

We first addressed this question, “What makes the end of the year unique compared to other times of the year? Is it similar to winter break?” Angela mentioned that “There is a difference in the attitude” with the two time frames. With winter break there is a need to “push through” while with summer break there is a sense of “we are done”. She then continues with the powerful statement of how her “goal is to create life long learners” so that students can continue with the skills learned in her classroom through the summer and beyond. This made me think of the quote, “Success is not a destination, it is a journey.” and change it to read “Summer is not destination, it is a journey”. The later quote offers a perspective that helps remind me of all the importance of reflecting on all of the successes and failures of the year.

Next, we explored ideas of what teachers can do at the end of the year. Angela discussed how she spends a lot of her summer reflecting. When asked how she records her reflections she said that “Mental notes do not work for me….that is one reason why I started blogging.” Also she expressed how writing the reflections down is a way to challenge herself. I agree because when I reflect mentally my mind wanders from topic to topic and it also allows the possibility of not confronting the issue head on. Transcribing the reflection often expands and integrates my thought process to another level. Angela continued by telling how she is not the only one self-reflecting. She gives her students self-reflections too. Just from this simple exercise she is able to witness student growth, such as questioning understanding, and observe students to taking responsibility for their learning. I, too, implement reflection into my math classroom and see similar results, which in turn impact students academically because they begin to reflect on answers and gain greater confidence.

Briefly we questioned how the end of the year would be different if students were able to continue on with their teacher. We both felt that students would develop stronger relationships, the teacher would be more in-tune with their students learning styles, and students could not use the classic excuse, “Well my teacher did not teach that last year.” Angela proposed that it could work too at a high school, such as freshmen to senior track. As an 8th grade teacher for five years, one of the sad parts was how the relationship would peak at the end of summer. This made me want to teach 6th grade so that I could see students grow during 7th and 8th grade. Now, that I am teaching at a community college, I look forward to teaching a student in developmental math then again later on in Calculus. Then I might be able to see what type of impact my teaching methods have on certain students.

We ended the reflection by discussing this topic, ”Can students handle an educational celebration? Can teachers handle and educational celebration? What includes an education celebration?” From my experience, students want to celebrate the two weeks after the state testing. I, too, wanted to celebrate by teaching cool math that was not in the curriculum, however students simply wanted to play games the entire time. As Angela said, “Easing up on the students on the end of the year is difficult to do”. I agree because, while the end of the year should be a relaxed environment I do not want it turn into one big party. Angela offered a wonderful idea that along with graduation and academic award ceremonies a school wide service learning project could be implemented. Just recently I saw a trash bin filled with a whole bunch of final project posters. I thought about if students took those projects and placed them on the internet, their work could be on display for the whole world to see. Instead, the work is sent to a trash dump after only being show to a few. In Angela’s classroom her students design a book for next years students. She then takes all the books to be professionally bounded. In the end the project is rewarding because it “gives the students something tangible and it looks professional”. Overall that seemed to be the theme of our reflection. I want to offer students in an education that won’t be thrown away as the enter summer break, rather an education that can use and share all summer long.

Now I have not been in the teaching system long, only seven years to be exact. This has been just enough time for me to only see education movements come, not come and go. I would love to hear some stories from math teachers who have been teaching for 30 years and listen to how have they have grown due to the educations movement in their career. Also I would be interested in hearing if there were any similarities amongst the movements, if the implementation was forced, and if certain movements have had any impact on what education is today. This whole process would be like listening to life stories from grandparents. The wisdom of elders is not about replicating what they did but reflecting on their life experiences and then making action from it. Hopefully, I can carry this philosophy with all of my teachers, whether they have more, less, or equal amount of teaching experience, because we all can make an impact on education.

I am extremely excited with recent software developments that can be easily placed into classrooms.
Technology and internet have recently become one of my main hobbies. What is great that my time and passion into this hobby can be carried over into my classroom, such as communication through blogs and creating podcasts. My other hobbies, such as music and outdoors, can also be incorporated into my math classroom but not with the ease and potential as the internet. Now that I will be teaching in the community college (just hired last week) I assume that all of my students will have access to computers whether it be in the local libraries, the university, or in their house. This allows the possibility of making internet a full integration into my classes, almost like a required tool. If I was still teaching in the middle school I do not think that those students would have as much internet access outside the classroom, therefore the implementation would be limited. So with that excuse out the window, I wonder just how far will I go with the technology?

Does being involved in a teacher movement mean starting something new or just collaborating for a like minded cause? When I hear the phrase ‘teacher movement’, I automatically think of positive images, such as a progression meant for the greater good. However, there surely has to be teacher movements that are not as they appear. One where the intent is there but certain follow up actions throw it way off course. What quickly comes to mind is No Child Left Behind, which I still do not know enough information to offer a valid opinion. But could I really point out a teacher movement? Could I observe another teacher at a classroom, or on the internet, or at conference and distinguish that they are part of a teacher movement? The teacher movement must begin with myself. I must find and accept the movements within myself that excites and motivates me to implement mathematics into my student lives the best that I can. If I go around looking for the hot new education trend and hop on the band wagon, then I am merely looking for group to associate with. Yet, I want to stop swinging like a pendulum from side to side. My movement must be one that I am engaged with and frequently contribute to. Sounds like a slogan for Web 2.0.

Perhaps my teacher movement is about exploring the power of the internet as a tool for my math classes. Too often, I think the classroom is seen a location where ALL the learning takes place. I want to move away from this and to an enhanced philosophy. It includes the classroom being a safe environment to share math ideas, a place where answers are not told but contributed and then agreed upon by a community, where students are articulating thoughts to peers, and me the teacher who is not a sage on stage rather the guide on the side. For me, this produces developed humans not programmed student robots. The fascination is that if it is working or even if it is not at all working for me that I can share with teachers around the world. Likewise, my students can share their math thoughts to other students around the word. We all, student and teachers, become connected in worldly math experience. How cool that is! This lead me to believe that the internet allows for a possible grander teacher movement; a student-teacher movement. Now that sounds powerful to me.

Student needs: Tactile tools and cognitive processes that are service in a student’s learning.

Okay, that definition is wordy, technical, and purposely vague. Not to mention that a student would be instantly confused if I told them this is what I am providing for them. Therefore, should I be able to explain what student’s needs are in order effectively reach them in my classroom? Being able to define a math term is when I have a deep understanding of the meaning. Also I properly apply the word towards concepts and correctly use it when articulating thoughts. By this comparison, it is possible that by not being able to define student’s needs, then I have a weak grasp of understanding. Exposing a misconception such as this is scary yet now that it is in my awareness I can grow from it. This is the whole idea of reflection; growing from strong and weak attributes.

In order to have a balanced relationship between students and myself, then it is a necessity that I can effectively communicate with them how I am reaching their needs. In other words, a student’s interpretation of how I am reaching their needs allows many perspectives guess what I am trying to do, which can result in frustration and confusion. Sometimes the purpose of events appear so obvious to me that I don’t take the time to openly express my intentions. Recently I have discovered just how far off on different islands I am with my student about the concept of student needs. In small group discussions for the last two semesters, I have asked about a total of 75 students this question.

“What are the needs of a college student?”.

The student responses where totally different than I thought they would be and the majority of them were the similar in thought. Their statements included pencils, a good teacher, textbook, a teacher that is open and honest, a teacher that understands that there class is not the only one and a few others. Upon hearing these responses, I wondered how could I possibly reach my student’s needs if my intentions do not match up with their idea needs? Some of them I agreed with such as a need to have an honest teacher but the a need of a pencil shocked me. True a pencil could be lumped into a need category of facilitate learning through different mediums however I have never thought of that. Two important ideas are being shown here. First, gathering student input is extremely beneficial for me to be on the same page as a student. Second, communication with my students is the first step in reaching their needs, and, at the same time, them reaching mine.

When a student asks a question in my classroom, I often reply by giving them another question or an indirect answer that requires them to continue solving their own problem. I do this because I feel like one of a student’s need is learning how to explore their understanding when problem solving. But if I do not communicate with them that this is my intent, then their perspective could easily be that I pointlessly confuse them when answering their questions or in other words, there is no method to my madenss. Does this mean that daily I should make students aware of how I am trying to reach their needs? This is a tough question because students can quickly be turned off if they know that what I am doing is educating or enriching their lives. This is like when students learn best when they are engaged with an assignment having fun with their learning. Try to tell them that they are learning and they will say, “Oh, I thought I was just having fun.” However, I do not think that students should secretly have their needs reached, like giving a sick child sugar coasted medicine. Timing is the key. Finding the perfect moment to discuss what needs have been met and how they were met allows students to recognize what is been done in my classroom and accept possible accomplishments.

If two people are in a healthy relationship mutually committed to its growth, then they have to effectively communicate when each is taking time to reach the others need. As a teacher, this can be difficult for me since I am trying to develop 60 student-teacher relationships at one time. Plus, are students developed enough to know what their needs are? How has their education provided direction towards understanding themselves as a student? For instance, when should a student be able to recognize when they are blaming the subject for their difficulties instead of observing how they quit trying to understand the subject once they are challenged in the slightest way. I believe that gaining an understanding of ones self is an important student need but addressing this in my classroom can be tricky. Also, if a student need is to excel on a state test then what about holding a class discussion on the best way to reach this need. Or should I be in control the whole time saying, “Okay, during this final week before the state test you will review the material by going over all of the chapter review problems in the book.”? How much power should I give my students in reaching their needs? Should I be the one with all of the say because I am the adult with degree? I think that it is important that I search for those opportunities that would be appropriate for them to have the power to choose. The amount of times this may happen will most likely be based on the structure of student involvement within the class. By allowing students be involved in the decision process, they are gaining an understanding what their needs are from a personal and education perspective. The key idea is not to give the students power in my classrooom, but to have them share and embrace it with me, making it known that together we will reach their needs.

[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/11173663/view]

At the middle school, where I taught five years, I was on a two person team, which consisted of myself and another teacher. Being paired up with another teacher as compared to not being on a team such as in the college I now teach, I was more inclined to talk with my team mate about the behavior our students, the lessons we were teaching, and future events that needed to be organized. I wonder if there was a different approach that we could have taken in being more of an active community? True, we did an excellent job of being a community through discipline, such as calling parents at all times not just during problems. This appears to mirroring common city communities that are facilitated by only taking care of problems and suppressing them. Communities that create positive outlets for the community provides the opportunity for those members to earn intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. In other words, the citizens are working for and with the community through activities that develop and enhance the area. Thus, as a teacher the community my students and I create should be integrated through my teaching practice so that student effort is optimized, instead of separating our work towards developing the community and their math understanding.

Maybe the communities that I have developed were actually a neighborhood since I only took care of my block of students and that was it. I did not work with the other two teams in the eighth grade or any within the school. For instance, I could have taken advantage of the sixth grade students at my middle school by creating a mentor program. Then my students could have the opportunity to teach sixth graders math, allowing them to gain a deeper understanding of basic math skills and foster positive relationships between grades. This seems like a wonderful idea but I still would be hesitant to propose a community idea such as this. What is it with my teacher attitude of “Yeah, you do what you want in your class and I’ll do the same in mine, capiche?” Why am I so shy in professing my educational ideas with other eductators? The teacher walls of my classrooms extend to my teaching philosophy, therefore boxing it in. Then there is the double standard of telling my students to work together and that a team strengthens an individual. Experience can be the greatest teacher and my experience in a educational community is very little. Thus, my confusion of a teacher community results from my cover up of continually rejecting the idea of participating in a community of educators.

I could be just one of those I am an educational nerds that just loves to talk about teaching. The irony is that I rarely talk about teaching to others, I just talk to myself. That does not sound too counstructive. I was so excited to have job interviews since it gave me the chance to be in an enviroment where teachers are challenging my educational beliefs. Of course, the interviews would have been better if there could have participated more with discussions but an interview is more about hearing what I have to say. I guess I have to wait to get hired and then we can talk more. But will I really do that, or will I let the opportunity slide? Reluctantly, I admit that I have I rarely, through out my seven years of teaching, discussed with another teacher about pedagogy. The majority of my teacher talk was about asking how was your weekend and what is going on in your life. Now this is being human and talking about each other lives is important. This communication helps relieve stress off the mind and it serves as the balances between career and life. However, there really was not a balance; all that I talked about was life and ignored educational discussions. What type of impact would there be if I found the balance in my communication within my community of educators?

What perfect timing it is that most likely my next teaching position will be at a Community College. A community college is exactly what the title suggests; a service for the community. This will give me the chance to challenge my fears and experience community in many ways, such as with my students, faculty, local, and gobal. The interesting part will be in observing how each individual community is connected. For instance, I could develop a project with another teacher where students work with informations from the local community and then publish it globally on the internet. This exemplifies how each community has unique potential in further developing the wholeness of a student and teacher. Also, I cannot allow the internet to be my cover up for not participating in a local community. Likewise, my local community should not hold me back in reaching to the thousands of educators on the internet. Again, the magical word, balance, is ringing in my ear. And now it is time for me to discover the balance in all of my educational communities!

Some times I think that difficulty can get confused with changing the way of thinking about a problem. By changing the way a student thinks about a problem, it allows them to expand their understanding from an area they are already familiar. I guess what I am talking about is taking the mechanics of a problem and then looking at the concepts. This involves taking another step towards having a deeper understanding of the problem. But does this really make the problem more difficult or is this showing a fine line between difficulty and challenging. It seems like a teacher can challenge a student to expand their belief of what is difficult for them. I have students that passionately say math is difficult for them and it has always been that way. Yet, at times they seem to contradict themselves as they excel in certain areas. This suggest that the math is not difficult for them but it is their approach of giving up once they are at math wall of their understanding. Then the blame is projected on the math wall instead of recognizing and accepting that they have a difficulty in moving past areas that really challenge them. How does this come about for a student? I think that for some students they rarely have their thinking challenged. In other words, math is always easy for them and they happily move along. Years go by and they are hardly ever challenged to really think about the math that they are learning. Then the come to a class where the material is certainly in their grasp, but it also challenges they way they think. When this happens, I hear the phrase “Math used to be my strong subject. I always got A’s and B’s in math. But not anymore. It must be the teachers fault then.” If a scenario such as this occurs then how does a teacher help the student realized that they are not a victim of the math gauntlet? Just another task for me as a teacher to be aware of.

So what makes a class difficult? Is it based on on hard it is to get an A in the class, or the material, or the teacher or a combination of these? My GPA in my education classes are significantly higher than in my math course. Does this mean that math classes are more challenging the education classes or is it that learning math is more difficult than education classes? How does the cognitive process of a student change in a math classroom? How does my class challenge a student compared to their other classes? How attainable should my class be to earn an A? All of these questions help me process the true difficulty of my class. Going deeper into the issue, I further inquire. Do I want my students to succeed? What does succeeding as student mean for my class? Why do I choose to keep challenging my students and push them to a higher level of understanding? Is their a part of me that always wants to be one step ahead of the student, so that I am the one who always has the answer? Answering honestly to these personal questions will help me understand the root of my beliefs in what is difficult and what is challenging. As a result, my students will be able to have their math understanding appropriately challenged and an awareness of the difficulties they have as a learner and in academics.