Dear Ms. A,
Hi, my name is John Smith. I'm not sure if you remember me but I was a student in your math class about ten years ago. I'm writing to thank you for all the help you provided me with during that school year. I began that year with a strong dislike towards mathematics. It had been a subject that I'd never really understood nor wanted to understand. I'd always found math to be too abstract and felt that it would never be of use to me in real life; however, my opinion changed after I had you as my math teacher all those years ago. You were probably my first math teachers to not actually teach straight from the textbook. You always came up with your own math problems and examples for each topic, which always incorporated something I had learnt in one of my other classes. I loved how you had the class participate in so many group activities throughout the year instead of you just lecturing us from the front of the class each day. I also really appreciated how warm and welcoming you made your classroom for all of us students. You maintained good class discipline and made me always feel like I was in a safe environment, thus allowing me to feel comfortable enough to participate in class discussions. It was one of the few classes I had in high school where I didn't feel intimidated or afraid to ask what I may have preceived as a "stupid question." Being in your math class made me decide to pursue mathematics in post-secondary and now be a successful graduate with a mathematics degree. You were one of my most memorable teachers in high school and I just wanted to thank you for all the help you gave me during that time.
Sincerely,
J. Smith
Dear Ms. B,
Hello, my name is Jane Smith and I am a former math student of yours from about ten years ago. I am writing to you today to convey some of the less than pleasant memories I had while being in your class. I remember I always felt somewhat nervous whenever I took a math course in high school as math was not always the easiest subject for me; however, I feel that my experiences in your class stemmed from more than me just struggling with the subject. I feel (and I'm trying to say this in the nicest possible way) that you taught that math class quite poorly. I didn't find you to be an enthusiastic or motivating teacher. In fact, you were always spoke in soft, monotone voice that would always put be to sleep. I could never quite hear everything that you said in class and the things I did listen to were so boring, I regretted listening. I felt you didn't have enough activities in class, all you did was lecture. You tended to give too much homework and your tests were way too long. I did like you as a person, but as a math teacher I'm sorry but you were below par. Please take my comments as suggestions for improvement.
Sincerely,
J. Smith
At this stage as a teacher candidate, the thing I most fear is not being able to implement all the good teaching strategies I am currently being taught in the Education Program. Currently, all of my instructors emphasize on how important it is to engage students, be enthusiastic about what you're teaching, work towards instructional as well as relational understanding, etc, but I fear I might be too overwhelmed in my first years of teaching to be able to accomplish it all. I realize it will take a great deal of experience actually teaching in a classroom before I will be able to achieve all the traits I'd like to have as a math teacher. This is something I'm willing to work hard towards because I love math and have a great passion for teaching and I hope this will come across once I become a teacher.
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