Sue Hellman

First I want to say hello and welcome to this TPS-writing journey. 

As you may have seen yesterday, there's very little agreement among advise-givers about how to accomplish this task which is partly what makes a TPS so challenging to write. Days 1 & 2 of this week are devoted to reflecting and brainstorming about why teaching is important to you and how that is expressed through what you do and how you do it. 

This mini-course has been designed so you can work through a sequence of writing process steps by following the tabs or browse for content that will help you over your specific hurdles. The Find Your WHY activity (tab 1b) came from an workshop I gave at UNB, Fredericton. You can skip through the topics using the Table of Contents on the right.. 

If there are any resources you hoped to find but are not seeing, please drop a note in the Open Forum. And again ... welcome!

That's the kind of 'defining experience' story more teachers should hear and hear again at different stages of their careers. I was wondering, when I looked at your email address, what might be behind it. Thanks for sharing. 

PS For others who might read Patti's story, this kind of anecdote can be a great addition to a TSP. Showing how you 'draw on personal experience to ensure all students' needs are met' is much more powerful than telling them that's what you do. The follow-up might be to share examples of how this has played out in your teaching and the insights you've gained as a result. 

OK. I admit it. Teaching has been my life's work, too. When I was a kid, I would line up my dolls & stuffed animals & teach them stuff. I 'left the profession' 8 years ago and still keep trying to find ways to get back in. I'll be doing a workshop with a group of California math teachers in Feb. about 'math zombieism' and how to help the afflicted recover. Here's what I'm going to tell them about my 'why'. (BTW, if anyone remembers the ad I mention below & can send me a link, that would be a huge help.)

Several years ago there was a tv commercial which portrayed a man tethered to a monstrous, rusted-out boat. He was trying to haul it out of the sea and up onto the beach, but the boat looked too heavy. It seemed fated to slide back into the water where it would inevitably sink pulling the man under. He was doomed to drown. 

Much of my career has been spent working with struggling (what we used to call 'remedial' or 'modified') math students. I used to tell them that story -- likening their history of awful math experiences to the rusted hulk. What I was there to do, I would say, was show them another possibility: they could cut it loose. They could learn the skills and bob to the surface. They might never like math, but they would no longer have to fear being drowned by it.

The most important thing about my teaching is that it has given me the opportunity to help these kinds of learners free themselves from having to drag their load of past math failures into the future. Schooling shouldn't teach people that they can't do stuff. It should affirm to them, over and over and over, that they can.

Wow, Gina. Your reflection has left me more than a little overwhemed. I retired in 2010 and am experiencing a similar 'struggle' in fact I'm applying for a position and will be writing my TPS today. I wonder if some kind of scientific case can be found for teaching changing one's DNA in some way? 

Welcome to the course. If there's anything you'd like to see or feel is missing, just let me know either here or vis a message. 

Late comment -- sorry...

I just read the MicroCourse rubric for peer feedback in these forums. It's in the indtructions that precede the comments. If you haven't looked at it already, it could be interesting. 

-SH