Math graduate assistant: 'Don't care more about your students' grades than they do'
Teaching MTH 105: Intermediate Algebra taught Shawn Witte that student apathy is higher than he realized.
"It's math, and nobody wants to be there," the Grand Rapids native said of his first year as a math graduate assistant.Witte said many freshmen take MTH 105, and, about four weeks in, they start to realize they don't have to come to class. He said he's always available to his students if they need help, but students rarely come to his office hours.
"There's not much I can do," he said. "There is a rule in teaching: don't care more about your students' grades than they do."
Now in his second year as a GA, Witte emphasized he has had many hard-working students who have been successful in his classes.
"The grade is directly correspondent to the effort, usually," he said.
Witte taught MTH 106: Plane Trigonometry in the fall semester and is teaching MTH 217: Business Calculus this semester.
He said math GAs in the master's program typically teach two sections of a three-credit class, but his one section of MTH 217 is a four-credit class with about 60 students.
Witte said he has not had difficulty balancing being a student and teaching students.
"It's not really hard. You just make time to do your homework and have your lesson plans ready," he said. "Lesson plans are like homework for teaching."
In addition to teaching two hours two days per week, Witte said he needs about one hour of preparation for each class period. However, he said grading takes up the most of his time, as it can be tedious, and there are times when he thinks to himself, "This is boring; I'm going to play FreeCell and get back to it."
Witte said he doesn't like grading, because if students get everything right, it's boring, and if students get everything wrong, it's frustrating.
"I just don't like grading, but it goes quickly if they get everything right," he said.
Despite his dislike for grading, Witte said he does enjoy teaching and learning. Witte, who studies geometry and topology, said math is fun for him, and he's disappointed when his students don't share his love for the subject.
"The biggest challenge is to teach people a subject they don't like," he said. "They're resisting the urge to learn."
While other majors might have topics that are more subjective, Witte said he likes the dependability of math and theorems.
"It's there, and it's true no matter what," he said.
Math GAs teach MTH 105 their first year, because the homework is set up online and GAs can clearly see which sections to cover.
"It's kind of an easier way to ease into teaching," he said.
Most math homework is online through websites such as MathXL and WebAssign, which makes grading easier, Witte said. He said online homework not only helps him, but it benefits his students, because they receive instant feedback and learn from mistakes.
"They know immediately whether they got it right or wrong," he said. "If they write it out and do it all the same way and get it wrong, they don't know until they get it back."
Witte has done his undergraduate and masters studies at Central Michigan University, and, although he likes the faculty, he said he plans to pursue a doctorate at another university to avoid "institutional inbreeding"--getting all his degrees from one institution.
"There are different perspectives in math, as much as it is all logic and truth," he said.
