Confidence In Math

Today I want to write about a certain student that we are all very familiar with. As future math teachers, we all know of the student who is convinced that they do not have the “math gene”. By this I mean, the student that thinks that they are incapable of learning and doing math. As a tutor, have been working with a student who literally believes that he will not pass his math class because he was not capable of learning the material. For his privacy, in this post I am going to call him John. I tutored John in college algebra last semester, and now I have him again this semester. Last semester, John barely showed up to his tutoring sessions, and when I asked him why he wasn’t showing up he told me that it was because he thought it was pointless and that he wasn’t going to learn it anyways so there was no point getting extra help. Personally, I think that the reason he was doing so poorly was because he wasn’t letting himself learn. John had one last session last semester right before the final. He met with me after missing several of his sessions. I was trying to teach him something that his calculator can do that will help him on the final. He then admitted to me that he did not have a calculator and hasn’t had one all semester. I realized, from the second he started the class he truly believed that he wasn’t going to pass the class. So of course, he didn’t. He did not want to learn. So, he decided he was incapable, because to him it was easier to believe that it wasn’t in his control than to put in the work to learn it.

This semester John is a completely new student. The first day of tutoring he walked in (with a calculator!) and he said, “I should have come to more of these last semester”. Since then he has come to all but one session. He comes and works for the entire time, and he actually questions from lecture. He said he has attended almost every class and he filled out every note guide! The best part about all of this is that he really believes that he can succeed this time. He comes to tutoring and is INSANELY more confident.

Something similar to this happened to me while I was in middle and high school. When I was younger, about fifth grade, I did not do any of the testing that the “smart” students did to be in the smart math courses. I didn’t care or let it bother me until I was in 7^th grade into my high school years. By then I realized that I wasn’t being challenged in math. So, in hopes of joining a math class that was more challenging to me my mom called and asked the school if I could move up, because they weren’t allowing 8^th graders to skip classes. Therefore, when I was in high school, I did not really feel like I was treated as if I was smart in high school. Even though I got A’s in all my math classes, my class was always getting compared to the accelerated students, thus we were always treated as if we weren’t as capable at math.

The reason I wanted to write about this is because this something I really want to focus on when I am a teacher. I want to make sure I treat every student as if they are capable of learning math. I believe that a student is capable of doing math as long as they believe that they are capable of learning math. I think that it is extremely important for all of us to remember as teachers.

Maintaining Professionalism in Your Profession

              When I was a kid, my mom would do this thing where she’d pick out a random person in the mall or airport and then tell me his/her life story. At first, I was quite amazed. I would think, is my mom psychic? Eventually I grew up, and I realized she was just joking and making up some elaborate story. Despite her stories not being real, I learned to watch people and see if I could learn anything about them by noticing small things.

              Teaching is a career in which we never stop learning. We’re constantly changing (and hopefully improving) the way we go about instruction. I have been watching teachers my whole life, but I have really focused on watching them starting my sophomore year in high school when I decided I wanted to become a math teacher.

              I went to a nice high school, and I am very privileged to have received the education I did, however, I noticed a few things that really upset me—things that I can guarantee happen in almost all high schools. These things shared one commonality: professionalism.

              I think teachers too often forget that teaching is their job. I’m not saying that they should look at teaching with disgust and have a negative attitude about it. What I mean is teachers try to be the students’ friend, and thus forget that there are boundaries that need to be put in place. Not only does this happen in the classroom, but it happens with social media.

              It would be unrealistic to expect all teachers to not have any kind of social media. After all, being a teacher means you’re a human, and humans in today’s society tend to have quite a bit of social media like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. But being a teacher in today’s society means you have to be even more careful than most people have to. One miss spoken phrase or action can land you in a lot of legal trouble along with possibly losing your job and reputation.

              That is why teacher’s need to set boundaries when it comes to social media and their students. The best thing some of my teachers did was tell us students that they would not add us on Facebook until we graduated. They didn’t mean graduated from their class—they meant from high school. Just because a student doesn’t have you for class, doesn’t mean it’s okay to have them on social media.

              Setting boundaries also allows for you as a teacher to maintain a work and private life. Keep social media to be for family and friends. There is no need to have a student as a friend on Instagram or Snapchat, let alone to post photos or videos of those students on your accounts. If you use social media for non-educational purposes, your students have no place in it.  

              Be their teacher and mentor, but remember that you are also hired to teach, not to be their friend. You can be a good teacher, even a fantastic teacher, without crossing these boundaries. This is your chosen profession, so remember to keep it professional.

When Is Technology Use in a Classroom Too Much?

We live in a society today that is predicated on technology. So it is only fitting that, in many ways, education is now reliant on technology. While I am all for the use of technology in a classroom, I think it is best used as a means to supplement teacher instruction, rather than replace it. 

Throughout my experiences growing up, I know several teachers that have based their entire lesson plan around a video or diagram they found on the Internet. But then, the impossible happens; technology stops working (for whatever reason) and it’s like we have lost our ability to breathe. I am as guilty of this as anyone else, when my phone or laptop suddenly experiences issues at the most inopportune time. However, as a teacher in a classroom, there are several ways around this dilemma. Take the information that was going to be presented in the video and/or diagram and relay it to your students based on your understanding. Or, perhaps proceed with new material and show your students the video/diagram at a later date once the technological issues are resolved. I had numerous teachers throughout high school that would halt a lesson all together when this situation would occur, because they felt limited as to the material they could cover without technology. I guess in some instances this makes sense. However, I feel that the disadvantages of too much technology in a classroom can often times outweigh the advantages, from both a teacher perspective, but even more so from a student perspective.

I think in many ways technology is helpful to aid in student learning. At the same time, I also think it can serve as a major distraction and as a hindrance to learning. For one, if a student is bored, having easy access to their own personal tablet will give them the freedom to search the Internet, play a game, or do other things that do not pertain to learning. Readily accessible technology in a school setting also makes it that much easier for students to cheat or plagiarize material. And likewise, from a teacher perspective, it is a lot harder for you to know if your students are paying attention and doing what they are told. For example, say the textbook is online and accessible from each students’ tablet. You instruct them to take 5 minutes to read a section of a certain chapter. Unless you walk around the room and look at each students’ individual tablet, there is no way for you to know what they are actually doing. And even then, students could see you walking towards them, pull up the textbook, and once you are out of their sight, go back to what they were previously doing. With good old fashioned textbooks, it was a lot easier to monitor your students.

But one thing that is very alarming, as a future math teacher, is how this easy access to technology can effect students’ problem solving skills and critical thinking. There are many great websites out there that help promote learning and problem solving by providing answers to various problems. I am certainly not against this, as again, I am as guilty as anyone for using these websites. We browsed through these various websites together a few weeks back in MATH 371. However, these websites should be used as a means to check answers and understanding, as opposed to relying on them for doing all the work to save time and headaches. When some students have trouble adding 464+332 or solving an equation such as 3x+7+16, I believe it speaks to how dependent we are on technology... that students can be so lazy that they will not even make the time to solve these simple, straightforward problems using their own knowledge and critical thinking.

Please don’t get me wrong; I think technology in a classroom for both students and teachers is beneficial, when appropriately used. But we as teachers are paid to do just that, teach; not to rely on technology to do it for us. Likewise, students need to develop the necessary problem solving, critical thinking, and social skills that I feel best come from an old fashioned school setting. Again, maybe I am old-school (no pun intended), but I often ponder, as a soon to be full time teacher, when is technology use in a classroom beneficial, and when is it simply too much?

Andrew Breitzman

The Importance of Workshops and Conferences

As a teacher or pre-service teacher, it can be very beneficial to attend various workshops, seminars, and/or conferences. Back in high school, I did not understand why all my teachers would miss a day or two of school to attend a conference. Some of them wanted to while others were upset about it because they were forced to attend. So, I kind of got the idea in my head that workshops were annoying or were somewhat a waste of time especially if you already knew how to teach the material to your students. My perspective has completely changed after being in the program here at SDSU.

In October of 2018, I attended the NCTM Regional Conference in Kansas City. Not only did I attend seminars focused on how to incorporate better teaching methods into the classroom, but I also attended workshops focused on technology resources for teachers. These technology resources were aimed at aiding and furthering instruction in the classroom. These sessions really opened my eyes to what I as a teacher could incorporate into my classroom for not only me, but for my students.

In these technology sessions I was introduced to many different math websites and apps like Desmos, Quizlet, Quizzes, etc. I was also able to get an in-depth look at how some of them operated and how I could possibly implement them in my own classroom. I really felt like I started to understand the beneficial use of using these websites and apps in the classroom by attending these sessions.

The extent to which a teacher chooses to use technology is up to his/her own opinion, however, sessions like these that show the many uses of technology and how beneficial they can be to a classroom, may lead others to question why a teacher refuses to use technology in his/her classroom. Technology is all around us, and as educators we need to learn to adapt and find ways to incorporate parts of the outside world into our classrooms.

While we may be teachers, we never stop learning. Just because we are really good at math, doesn’t mean we have learned it all. It is important to embrace these education experiences especially as you grow more experienced in your teaching career. If you want to be the best teacher out there, you’ll have to put in some effort. Be that teacher that is happy to attend a workshop or conference because you are excited to bring back something new to your students. Embrace the learning because it is what you will be doing for the rest of your life.

Kaylee Johnson

360 on my views of technology

When most college students think of technology in the classroom, they probably think of professors struggling to get the projector to work or turning the sound on for a video in class. I believe students most likely do not think they need to learn how to use technology for classes. But for me, this was not the case. Technology is newer to me as a student. I grow up homeschooled all the way until I graduated high school. I have had to learn a lot of basic things that most students learn in high school. For example, making a presentation on powerpoint or typing efficiently. While I was homeschooled, I hand wrote all my papers and assignments. I also did not use a computer for much besides occasionally watching a video to learn. Now as a college student, I am glued to my laptop for most of my homework.

But even with having to learn many new things at once, I have grown to enjoy all the recourses online. It is amazing how much knowledge and help there is out there online. As a "math person", I enjoy many websites that help with my weaker areas. For instance, a grammar checker for when I am writing papers. Growing up the only thing I was taught about technology was the negatives of it. I heard parents complain about the distraction and how their children stare at their phones for long amounts of time. Although these aspects of technology are true and should be taken into account, it is interesting to learn some of the good things about technology.

I think the best part about technology is that it has the ability to strengthen our weak areas in learning. Many students dislike a subject but with the technology, they would have more tools than before to be able to overcome this weakness. With something like emailing, students are able to ask a question if they are stuck on something and are not at school. Or shyer students would be able to ask questions in class if the teacher is running a class chat online. There are countless more ways that technology would be beneficial in the classroom.

Since I have come to college and seen these benefits of technology my views have been changed. As a student and as a potential teacher, I see technology as a great help in my life. Being a teacher is hard work and something that could make your life easier or more efficient is worth a try.