Letters from my future students!

Letter from a student who loved my class:

Dear Ms. Mohamed, 

Hope you have been taking care! 

I know it's been 10 years, but I really wanted to check in and thank you for my experience in your math class. Every so often I'll be minding my business throughout the day, and then I think, "oh look! So much math might have gone in to that" or "hmm, I wonder if that set of ideas came from a different origin place." I'm really grateful for the emphasis you placed on shifting our perspectives of math in the real world, and how much you passionately talked about different cultures, times, and people. You used to encourage us to share our math experience and our identity, and had so many thoughtful activities that facilitated that growth. I felt my confidence grow in your class, because I got to appreciate the subject I once hated and felt the satisfaction of all the mathematicians of the past cheering me on as I learned and mastered their topic of studies! 

I hate to admit it, but you were also right back then too. You knew we booed when you talked to us about how important it was to be disciplined, organized, and persistent, and it never clicked how important that was until my Masters' graduation (this last weekend, by the way). Those work habits brought me here, and as I reflect on my journey over the years, I can't help but treasure the memories made in your class. 

I look forward to hearing back from you! 

Sincerely, 

John Doe 

Letter from a student who struggled in my class: 

Hello Ms. Mohamed, 

How are you doing? I took your math class 10 years ago and although it has been a while, I really wanted to share some of my thoughts on that experience. It was clear that you were always trying really hard to connect with us and help us try to see other perspectives. I liked that you had a lot of excitement about the content and relationships, and that was very notable. 

At the same time though, I felt like you had a hard time with keeping your coursework and announcements easy-to-read which made it very overwhelming on the days I was unable to attend class. Your assignments were different, which is nice, but having to do the learning on my own made it difficult to start and encouraged procrastination. Looking back, I realize I should have reached out when it was too much, but at the time, I thought you would have noticed earlier on when I was struggling. It was great that you were patient and understanding, but sometimes you were those in excess. I stopped prioritizing your assignments because it felt like everything was so flexible and forgiven. That felt ironic to me, given your discussions on work ethic. It felt like your words meant something to the other students, and never me.  

Despite the struggles, I always felt like you were rooting for my success as a person and that did make a difference. I just wanted to say thank you for the experience, and hope to see you around! 

Sincerely, 

Jane Doe

Reflection:

I found this activity really eye-opening, because it gave me a glimpse of the teacher that's being developed within me. Throughout my courses, I've been trying to take many tidbits of ideas and put them together, but this activity helped me visualize that end goal and how the tidbits fit together, and then reflect on how that would be perceived by my students. What I appreciated is that by the end of the activity, I knew for sure that regardless of whether my teaching methods worked for content, I would want my students to feel comfortable reaching out all those years later and knowing that I rooted for their successes. Over the years, I expect my classroom management techniques and teaching ideas to adapt for that current generation, but I'd like my passion for math and teaching to be constant. Each of our strengths and weaknesses do translate into the classroom, but it takes a lot of reflection to professionally develop those weaknesses so they aren't detrimental to students. I really struggle with adapting for EVERY student because that requires a lot of trust, honesty, understanding, communication, and *discipline*- but I'm scared of being blinded by potential and year-end-goals, and pushing a student too far beyond their capacity (or, zone of proximal development, especially for 90-120 of them). While I understand that some students may have a lot going on in their lives, sometimes they need understanding and sometimes they need coaching. And I need to learn how to be both as they need it.