1/16-digging out
I realize when I look back at last semester that I spent most if not all of it in a rut. I am in my 5th year of teaching and I think that I just went through the motions and did not put a lot of effort into improving myself as a teacher. I also do not remember having a lot of fun last semester. It wasn't awful but it was boring to me which meant that I am sure it was boring for the students. I do not know how to get myself out of this rut, but I need to try to find a way so that I can enjoy all the things that I liked about the job for the last four years. I think the attitude of the kids has been adding to my struggles. It seems that more and more I am having to answer the question "Why do I need this" and I have been unable to come up with a good answer. Maybe this is something that we need to address as a department before next year because this quesion in not going away.
posted by James H @ 9:19 AM
2 Comments:
Sorry to hear this. You seemed fairly positive to me and it sounded like you were doing some good things. Other than the "Why do I need this" question (which definitely needs to be addressed by your department - as well as all others), is there anything else specific that was bothering you?
I think that the answer is clearly to eliminate math altogether.
In the meantime, you should know that you are an amazing teacher, and that I've heard more kids in the past two semesters say that they like math than I've ever heard before. I tell them, of course, that they must be mentally deranged, but it's nice to care about something.
Seriously, though--I wonder if you and the math department could brainstorm some guest speakers to come in and explain how/why they use math (doctors, laywers, psychiatrists, business people, scientists, military specialists, etc). I checked out of math in high school because I honestly didn't think I needed it. Now, as stupid as this sounds, it's the show "Numbers" that has helped me understand that math is inescapable. Aside from Sudoku, which I don't think really counts as math, I still don't use complicated math that I'm aware of, but at least I respect it.
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