This morning while reading and responding to the university students' blog posts, I realized that it's sometimes okay to do some, not all. The students have multiple assignments due by many professors. Their interests and responsibilities are many and their time is short, hence it's impossible for every student to complete all tasks to the highest degree possible. Yet, it's not impossible for every student to give each assignment some time and some reflection.
I wanted the assignments to have meaning and importance, hence I've assigned a number of reading and reflection tasks that introduce students to multiple elements of teaching math well. Students have posted their reflections on their blogs which I hope will serve them well as they develop their teaching repertoire, collaborate with colleagues, and look for jobs.
The students' second main task was to create a math website. The website includes math teaching information such as field study reflections, a lesson plan that students have taught in class and in their practicum setting, a math children's book chart, blended learning chart, and other pertinent information. Similar to the blog, I hope that students' websites will serve as an evolving "file cabinet" of worthy math teaching resources that students can access and continue to enrich and revise to meet their teaching/learning responsibilities and share.
We make a mistake when we expect all work to be completed at the highest degree. It's important that we take the time to think about the tasks we're responsible for and decide when it's okay to do some, not all.
