I was a little sad to see them go, honestly. I know I was supposed to be the instructor, but I learned a fuck ton from them this semester. It’s a remedial math class, so many of the students in my class have had awful, awful experiences with math class in the past. I was determined to not be just the next traumatic math teacher in their lives, and it seems I’ve succeeded for some! I’ve gotten 3 emails and 1 in person conversation telling me that this was the best math class they’ve ever had and they actually feel prepared going into their next math class.
And I mean, it’s my first semester. I’m sure I was ass at a lot of stuff. But that’s where the learning from my students came in to play. I gave them lots of ways to talk to me about what was working and what wasn’t (even anonymously if they wanted) and ended up with something I’m really proud of, and I’m sure is just going to grow as I get more experience.
On top of this, my office mate and I have been developing a huge overhaul to the way we run the grade book in the course that we think will be more conducive to learning and growing than grade chasing (I hate traditional grading with every fiber of my being) and I just got permission from my bosses to test drive it over the summer class I’m teaching. I’m absurdly excited for it, but I’m also quite nervous, since it’s something I’ve never been on the student end of, and no one in my department has any experience doing it. So I’ll be treading new territory, and nervous I won’t be able to solve some of the challenges that will inevitably come up. Would hate to screw over my students by trying something crazy too fast.
At ant rate, I’ve officially decided I love teaching.
welcome to the club comrade! The important thing to remember is to have grace for your own learning. Congratulations on realizing it is happening and centering it! It’s amazing and humbling and gratifying how much students know about they need from you to learn.
My bosses have both said that students don’t know what they need to be able to learn and all they want to do is minimize the amount of work they gave to do (they have stereotyped the students who end up in remedial math as being generally bad students, which I hate. It’s a really toxic way of looking at the students you teach, and it’s just plain wrong. These students want to succeed. They have just been left behind by a broken system). But that’s not been my experience in the slightest. I got so much genuine constructive feedback just by being open to student concerns, and I would have never grown as an instructor if I hadn’t taken the time to listen to them. I can’t even imagine having the mentality that I just simply know better about what students need to learn than the actual students.
They’re tripping for real. Like genuine misanthropy that has no place in education in a just world. Seriously big props to you for being open and honest! I’m not sure what age range you work with but learning about ‘love and logic’ as a framework has helped me a lot as a teacher in terms of setting boundaries and expectations in a fair and non-coercive way.
I’m teaching a college class, and I mostly have freshmen. I’ve never heard of the love and logic framework (the only reason I’m teaching right now is because it’s part of my responsibilities as a graduate assistant while I’m getting a Master’s, so I know very very little about the education world).
Welcome to the field!
If you’re unfamiliar with pedagogies, it might be a little difficult to really dive into different frameworks without some familiarity with core concepts. It’s probably best to take a ed psyche course, but you can learn plenty from talking with other teachers/professors. And of course BOOKS! Here’s two of my favorites that are fairly accessible and offer a great intro to lots of educational concepts.
The Shame of the Nation by Jonathon Kozol
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paublo Freire
Ah! I recently just finished Pedagogy of the Oppressed! I heard about it on a podcast and decided to pick it up. I haven’t heard of the other one, so I’ll for sure give it a read. Thanks for the recs, comrade.
This is heartwarming to hear. Glad to know there are still teachers like you starting careers. I needed some extra help every so often throughout my schooling and I luckily had a few teachers who were open and who cared and they made all the difference. Keep going! (And when you need to, keep doing your thing despite the ‘system’!)