Classroom Environment

A lonely classroom is a sad classroom. To me, being alone is more than being somewhere by myself. It is worse when I feel alone even when I am in a crowd. I felt like that especially in my social studies 10 class. All of my classmates were from the Odyssey Program (an enriched program at my high school) so they were in classes together since grade 8. I transferred into their class starting in grade 10. The relationships were already made and it felt like I was not good enough to be friends with them. I was not an Odyssey student. I did not let it affect me to the point where I cannot perform in the class. However, I can imagine how other students might behave when they are in such a situation. They might focus all of their energy into learning or they might zone out. For both situations, it would benefit immensely if students know someone in the class. For instance, I was always the last one to be in a group since we chose our own groups. In my future practice, I hope to build relationships not only between me and the students but also between the students themselves. I do not expect them to love math but I do want them to like being in my class.

Learning Styles

I know that I cannot study be reading something over and over again. I had to do many practice problems before I knew I had mastered a certain topic. My brother can read something twice and do well on a test. Of course, he does not remember any of it afterwards. I ask the students I tutor about their study methods. They said that they read the textbook and try to memorize the content. They complained that it would take them many hours and they still did not perform well on the assessment.

This tells me that learning is hard when the study method is wrong. There is no universal perfect study method. I believe that teachers should teach to different styles of learning. Many of my classes focused on multimodal methods in learning and teaching. These are important not only for students with different learning styles but also for students who have learning disabilities or ELL students.

Students should be aware of their own learning style in order to unlock their full potential. In my future practice, I hope to help students discover their learning styles. I say discover and not develop. Develop implies that they do not have one to begin with. Everyone has a learning style. After finding it, they can then improve it.

Confidence

When I was tutoring my cousin, I realized the importance of confidence in learning. When she pretends to understand, she does the work perfectly. She surprised not only me but also herself. I told this story to a struggling student during my practicum. I told her that she works really hard but she was still failing. The messages she wrote on her quizzes and tests saddens me. “I do not remember how to do this. Sorry.” I told her that she should not feel sorry about not remembering it. It is not her fault. I told her to be confident. It does not matter if it is not real. It will become real once the results come. She passed her next quiz. She also passed her test. I could tell that she was very excited. In my future practice, I hope to develop some sort of confidence in every student. It makes a big difference.