A Letter To My Future Self

Dear Ms. Koch,

I assume that you've gotten used to people calling you that by now, even though it sounds weird to me right now. I really hope that you are a teacher and are happy with your life. You may remember that I know what its like to work everyday at a job that isn't what you really want to do, and I want to believe that I've paved the way for you to not have to live that way anymore. On top of you being happy though, I also hope that you are a good teacher. I know how nervous you were when you started. In case you've forgotten, I've included some things for you to remember that you learned and believed in on how to be a better teacher.

First, remember that you aren't just a math/physics teacher. It matters of course that the main concepts of the class come across and that your students know how to solve specific types of problems, but there's more to it than that. What you really need to teach them is problem solving skills, how to use logic to make their way through unfamiliar situations, and how to think critically of the world around them. You never used to care if a student remembered (memorized) a certain formula, only if they could look at a problem and be able to recognize what information they have, what they need to find, and how those sets of information are related so they can figure out how to get there. I hope that's still what you find important.

Next, remember that it's easy to get the right answer without knowing how you got there. Remember how much you prayed for partial credit on tests when you knew that you had made some progress on a problem even though you didn't necessarily come up with an answer. As with many things in life, it's about the journey too, not just the destination. Also, if you are grading this way, you should also be teaching this way. Your students should feel comfortable sharing their ideas on how to approach a problem in front of the class. They should be able to defend their reasoning for how they go about doing a problem when faced with questions from you and, hopefully, from other students as well who spoke up when they were skeptical. Lord knows you spent enough time on your physics senior project finding how useful it is for students to talk amongst their peers about how to approach a problem (without necessarily solving it). I hope that didn't go to waste.

Remember also how useful questions can be to students rather than answers. Remember how much more meaningful a result was and how much better you understood the problem if you got there on your own (with some purposeful, guiding questions) rather than being told what to do next whenever you were stuck. To a point though... don't forget how frustrating it is when professors only answered your questions with another question. Allow them to struggle, otherwise they'll never really appreciate the problems and won't really learn the concepts. Don't let that struggle be unproductive, though. Sometimes they need more help than others. I hope you are better at recognizing those moments than I am.

For the love of God, don't tell me that you lecture all class every class period. Please. I worked so hard to learn what activities were useful and which ones weren't so that you could let students explore concepts on their own. I really hope that you remember how effective hands on learning is and that math and physics really don't make sense if you are just told that they make sense. Let students explore and experiment on their own. I hope your students know how fun learning can be. I hope you didn't forget that.

Wishing you all the best,
Sam