Can we really assess students knowledge at the end of each class? Doubtful. But I think most students can provide us with valuable information that we can use to make educated decisions about the future of our classes!

I can almost guarantee you that poorly written exit passes and brief conversations will get you nowhere, and in my experience those huge chapter exams don't really leave a lot of room for error - or time to fix mistakes.

But I am a huge supporter of encouraging students to make suggestions as per instructional strategies used in my classroom! It's so difficult to take criticism from a student but somebody strike me down if it's not effective.

Eventually this plan will actually be sustainable, at least I hope so. Right now it just feels like I make so many mistakes when I teach that every single student has something to say, and every single one of them is right!

1. Short quizzes instead of an chapter finals.
2. Update on how their projects are going jotted quickly on pieces of paper.
3. Tip sheets for advanced classes, something that reminds them of everything they already know. (I mean, I have all this stuff memorized but they really don't)
4. Study notes - maybe a discussion about how and what to study.
5. Time to correct work - maybe with help from more advanced students.

Of course, a quiz every day would take up far to much time! We could easily be use that time more productively by completing interesting and engaging activities! But I think that it would be extremely helpful for students if we could all work together to fix misunderstandings! It would almost be like reading to each other in English class. I can just imagine it now... "Wait, that doesn't sound right!"

I don't have to do all of the assessing, do I? I might be more qualified than my students in the Math department but if I am the only one who can teach the material in my classroom then I think I may have failed my students. We're aiming for higher learning aren't we? Then let's give them a chance to learn higher.

And during the short time that I have been teaching I have witnessed more test anxiety than I witnessed during my entire 17 year school career. I think I if I am really interested in knowing where my students are I am going to need to start taking them seriously. And if that means a couple more hours of work this week then so what? I'd say it is worth it.

It's good to have a vision

My plan? I see myself teaching at a smaller school soon (maybe rural, right now it seems as though it might be a private school), building a reputation as a knowledgeable and thorough mathematics teacher. I dream of having a great deal of material compiled into coherent lessons for my students to access. This dream, I feel, is already on its way with the construction of this blog! One day I hope that it hosts all of my material and that I can use it to address changes that I make to each lesson!

I'm thinking five years. That's what I need to have all my lessons ready to go by the first day of classes. This is not to say that I won’t be working on my lessons, just setting some goals for myself. A base lesson for each day that I can easily differentiate based on the students I have in the classroom.

I want to be able to talk to students about their learning preferences and to be able to show an active interest in helping them learn the way that they learn best. But I fear that I will begin to believe that it won’t be until after I compile all of my material that I can begin to do this.

The hard work that I intend to put into these first several years of my career will, hopefully, help define my work later in my career. I am not quite sure that I want to be a part of a large school with its own mathematics department. I fear that I will become lazy, and dependant upon the work that the people before me have accomplished. I sincerely hope that this is not the case! Perhaps a couple years of hard work will convince me otherwise.