I interviewed my past math teacher who taught precalculus and calculus at my high school. I was very interested in his journey to becoming a teacher because it was unlike any that I have ever heard. It was very impactful hearing to learn the challenges especially because some I did not think I would encounter as much being an elementary teacher. All of the kids he taught had different backgrounds and baggage that he was not ready for becoming a teacher. Kids would share things that were very baffling and tragic and it is hard to hear those things and know how to react to them. Most times he would just say this is beyond him and send them to the counselor, but it was still hard. I was also interested to hear that the education system at the time was not very good and the teachers/professors were very old school. “You taught how you were taught” he said which makes lots of sense to me and it seemed pretty practical, but that is not always good in the teaching profession because you need to adjust to new generations and ways of teaching. I have witnessed this when older substitutes will come in and they have very different teaching styles than what I was used to, it was not as modern. More lecture type, non-technological ways of teaching were used. He said, “You have to learn to appreciate all of the different types of students and their backgrounds.” It is very important to have tolerance to everyone and their differences in the classroom. Team tests seem to be a very impactful and powerful thing because it is good to allow your students to work together and hash things out to improve their cognitive and social development because they gave kids a chance to work together and learn from one another. Another challenge that he faced is knowing when to show compassion and when not to. I think that this is a very important lesson to learn because it is hard to let some things slide with certain students and some not because “You don’t want to get taken advantage of too much”. Going along with being taken advantage of it is hard to not lose your cool when students are being disrespectful or misbehaving. Teaching seems to be knowing what to say and when to say it and having lot of patience and compassion. Lots of learning and growing goes into this profession and I could not be more excited to learn and grow starting now!
