Sept. 28 2023, Exit Slip... What should a teacher do to help a student?

One of the most significant impacts a teacher can have on a student is allowing them to experience various things. When people experience many things, they can get a better grasp of the world, themselves, and the people around them. They can form stronger beliefs on ideas that someone's statement could easily overwrite. With a more concrete belief, you will question things that go against it and come to a better conclusion on what is true. With the world going faster and faster, one needs to be able to digest large amounts of information quickly daily. So when you come across something that seems off, it is a sign for them to slow down and research it better before agreeing with it. This fast-flowing news could include seeing sensational headliners about various things, such as politics, climate change and technological advancements. While the student believes these beliefs may be counter-productive to society, it is not within the teacher's right to force the student to believe in something they do not, as this will cause them to rebel against you. Only with various experiences can we shape the students better, and hopefully, they do good for the world.

As we look back on the math curriculum, everything seems very linear, and if you fall behind, you have a lot of work to catch up. However, with the hidden side of the math curriculum, problem-solving, critical thinking, etc., it is more of a logarithmic growth. Early on, when you are young, you learn a lot about solving problems and thinking logically. But, as you grow older, you only refine those skills by adding different skills to think logically up to a certain point. Thus, most students fall behind in math because their ability to think logically or problem-solving skills are lacking. Given the growth in this skill set is logarithmic, this causes students to be much further behind their peers, which makes them feel left out. Once students can pass a specific point of developing skills, this gap is much smaller, and the main difference here is the ability to keep up with the curriculum. Thus, as teachers, we should focus more of our teaching time on honing students' logical thinking, critical thinking and all these hidden problem-solving skills, as once students are up to par in that department, many would like mathematics more.