Reflections on Facebook

Looking through the reflections written by Math teachers, I felt happy and inspired.

I feel happy because teachers are actively doing and penning down their reflections. Only this time it is on Facebook which they have chosen, an alternative platform to Bloggers.com. This goes to confirm that when it comes from teachers themselves, they are more willing and motivated to do it. Of course, it is further confirmed that bottom-up initiatives work better than top-down.

I feel inspired as I am able to learn from them as well, their different strategies in classroom teaching and management. I am certain that they will feel the same way too. The sharing among the department is also deepened as some of them shared inspiring video clips and useful strategies. I also believe this is a way to create not only more collegiality but also congeniality among the Math teachers. The Math teachers have always worked closely as a team but this year I have a strong feeling that they are going to work even more closely and united to help our pupils achieve their potential. Usually during meetings, the Math teachers looked and behaved rather serious and quiet. However, for the past 2 meetings, there were more laughter and it seemed to me that they enjoyed the presence of one another. This really is a positive sign and I need to ensure that this culture should prevail in the department in order to have the right spirit to steer the department towards excellence.

As I type in my comments into the teachers’ reflections, I constantly remind myself that my comments must not only add value to their reflections but also to serve as a form of recognition and encouragement to them. It is not easy for me as I have to constantly choose my words carefully and phrase my sentences properly and professionally. One thing I like about using Facebook as a platform for reflections is that it has a feature for one to select “like” other than inserting comments and so on. This helps to allow them to know if others like their reflections. It also serves as a motivation for teachers to continue reflecting as they will know know someone will read them and they will feel good if their reflections are liked by others.

First Departmental Reading

I had my first Math Department meeting for 2011 on 30 Dec 2010. During the meeting, as part of my plan to start a reading culture in the department and to help the Math teachers to do their reflections, I shared with all the Math teachers an extract from Judy Willis’s book on “Learning to Love Math: Teaching strategies that change student attitudes and get results”. I chose the first chapter of the book, “Reversing Math Negativity with an Attitude Makeover” in which one of the strategies suggested is “Start the Year Showing That You Care”. I feel that this is just the right topic to start the teachers off before they see their Math classes since care is one of the core values of our school. In addition, pupils need to feel the care from the teacher in order to like or even love the lessons conducted by the teacher.

As I highlighted some parts of the article, I see some of the teachers nodding their heads. Wow, I felt good as I have managed to share something useful and meaningful to them. This, I hope, can help to them be more motivated in their teaching of Mathematics, believing more in their pupils and eventually helping pupils get rid of their negative attitudes towards the learning of Mathematics.

I will be purchasing 15 of these books for the Department so that some of the Math teachers in the Department can have a copy of the book to start their readings and do their reflections based on the readings. I will continue to share extracts from the book to the teachers during departmental meetings or even get some of the teachers to share after their readings.