The kind of teacher I want to be

My favourite math teacher is a teacher I had for several years from grade 9 to 11. My favourite thing about him was his teaching style; he taught instrumental learning very well through detailed examples and clear notes. He had a very friendly personality and had a very good humour which made his classroom a safe and welcoming environment. He made himself readily available for help afterschool most days or during tutorial hours, but also uploaded class notes to his website which made it easy to review missed material or a resource to go to for clarification. My least favourite math teacher was a prof I had for introductory Number Theory because it was difficult to follow along with his lectures as proofs skipped lots of steps and weren’t very intuitive. Often, it was difficult to read and felt rushed. Assessment of learning did not feel fair, as only unspecified questions in the problem set would be marked; I could have understood all questions in the problem set except for one and if that one question is selected for grading, it would be an unfair representation of my understanding of the material.

 

Letter #1, the student who liked me:

Hi Mr. Y,

Do you remember me? I was the student you had a few years ago who started off the year struggling but with your patience, persistence and help, I managed to finish off the year with 86%. You made every class enjoyable to attend because your humour and relevance to teaching made learning fun. I saw real-world application of what we were learning in class in other subjects like economics and art. My favourite part of coming to class was how you greeted everyone individually at the door as the 9am bell rang. You made tests fair by testing us on things we learned and no “surprises.” Anyways, I had so much fun being in your class and hope to visit you soon,

Student A.

Letter #2, the student who disliked me: 

Mr. Y,

I hated your class. Your math class was the hardest class to sit through every day. I’m not sure if you had a lot on your plate, but it seemed like you had to review your notes often before or even while you’re teaching, so sometimes you make class confusing. You emphasized how there are multiple ways to solve problems, which confuses me. I just want to know how to solve problems one way and always use one way. I also think you assign too many practice problems.

From,

Student B.