One of the first questions people ask me when I say I’m retired is what, if anything, do I miss about teaching. And I always say there are two things — interacting with students and writing tests. The first is obvious — most teachers I know say the best thing about teaching is the students. Chatting, discussing, arguing with students is great because, generally speaking, teenagers are inquisitive, open, funny, and skeptical; most are primed to say whatever is on their minds. I also miss sharing interesting facts or stories related to mathematics; whenever I run across one these days, my first thought is, “Boy, I wish I could share this with students.”
The appeal of writing tests, however, may not be so obvious. First, writing a test to me was always like solving a puzzle — how long should it be; what concepts, skills, and problem-solving techniques need to be included; how difficult should the questions be; and, last, what problem(s) can I include that show me the depth of understanding of the strongest students? I always thought that writing a good test was really hard, but I enjoyed the challenge. The other thing about writing tests that I enjoyed was using math software, like MathType, because the pages of the test or quiz come out looking so professional. For much of my career, I wrote tests by hand, and I now realize that they looked pretty crummy. Using the computer, I had access to all sorts of fonts and icons, could resize symbols like integral or summation signs and paste in graphs and charts. The pages of tests looked like they came out of a textbook.
Teaching is a wonderful profession, and I guess I miss it more than I am willing to admit.
Welcome to Independent Teacher’s spring issue on “Wellness in Schools.” We are excited to share with you some of the many ways schools across the country are embracing wellness for their students, faculty, staff, and, even, parents. This issue covers topics such as these:
- How to create a wellness program in the lower, middle, and upper grades
- Wellness for leaders
- Neurodiversity and differentiation