Self-Reflection to Teacher and Student Interviews

In my group’s interview with two high school students, it didn’t surprise me that one student said “no one really likes math in high school.” Further, from my encounter with many university students, most people either didn’t like math or had negative experiences with math. The interviews however, did shed some light on ways students would like teachers to teach math. Both students emphasized the importance of interesting the students and making “the class a little more fun and keeps everyone from NOT falling asleep” by allowing group activities. Therefore, as a teacher candidate it’s important that I am open to students’ suggestions and try my best to create a comforting classroom environment that involves plenty of excitement and fun group activities for students to engage in.
In the interview with the math teacher, however, she said she unfortunately “wasn’t accommodating other learners especially those who have learning differences.” Therefore, as a future teacher, I shall work towards being flexible and adaptive in my teaching so that I am able to accommodate or able to reach out to the various types of learners whether it is through simplifying a complex problem into simpler parts or using real life examples to help students relate to math. Lastly, I think it is also important that I am an approachable teacher so that my students will not hesitate to come and ask me for help.