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Case: Feeling Betrayed I have had a wonderful school year with my 26 third graders all of whom were bilingual. Most of my students were Chinese Americans with two from India. I used very engaging interactive strategies with my students throughout the year. They have responded to my teaching strategies very well, and made a lot of progress in all content areas. To my surprise and disappointment, my school principal informed me that she received a letter signed by most of the parents of my students stating that I did not teach their enough math. In the letter, they indicated the previous year students came home with a lot of homework and completed a large number of worksheets, while this year they have been given fewer worksheets. I explained to my principal that I was more interested in using math manipulatives and meaningful real world math problems than repetitive worksheets. What disappointed me (or hurt me) the most was that I have had four meetings with all the parents, and they did not raise any concerns in these meetings. Why would they directly go to the principal? What did I do wrong? Is this cultural? How should I respond to these parents? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) I know this frustration. Anyone outside of today's education system has very little clue of the newer ways in which students are being taught math. From a cultural aspect it is simply that they place a huge emphasis on education. They themselves are used to the repetitive nature of the math classes they took as children and obviously feel that this is the best way their student can learn math. I myself feel that repetition is key in completely committing math to memory. However, real world solutions do make math problems much more interesting/relevant to today's student. Do not fret. You're students did not make the complaint and next year you will have a different group of students/parents to contend with. So long as the students grasp the concepts, make the grades, and you are not cheapening their education you have done nothing wrong. |
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