Wednesday, 14 October 2015

Letters to Mr. Mak


Letters to Mr. Mak (10 years from now)

              Letter #1 from the happy student:

Hey, Mr. Mak, long time no talk! I’m just finishing up university right now (not a math degree, mind you), and I thought I’d shoot you a message. I want to thank you for making math entertaining and always making the class laugh. You made us all feel individually important and capable of learning new things that we found difficult in life. Personally, I want to thank you for listening to my problems that I was going through at the time (sorted out now), and then for convincing me to go talk to the counselor once you were feeling a bit over your head. At the time, I was a little hurt, but I see now it was the right choice. I’ve been able to be self-aware of myself and been able to overcome both academic and personal struggles over the years. So, just in case you’re questioning your life choices or whether you’re doing good things at your job, I thought I’d just say thank you for everything.

Letter #2 from the not-so-happy student:

Hey, Mr. Mak, I’m actually getting my teaching degree right now and am just reflecting on your teaching style from 10 years ago. Please, take no offense, but I always thought that you were too silly in class and didn’t focus on the course material enough. You didn’t emphasize certain mathematical terms and vocabulary enough, so when I went into university math, I didn’t understand a lot of what was being said. It sort of seemed like you wanted to be liked more than you wanted to get us prepared for exams and tests and things.

 

Reflection: The good letter is emphasizing my strengths of connecting with students and being approachable. The bad letter is stressing that I don’t want to prioritize entertainment OVER learning the material in class; I need to maintain control of the classroom while still being entertaining.

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