Sunday, July 24, 2022

2022 Student Letters

Every year at the end of the year I have my students write me a letter. Here are some excerpts from 2022, 7th grade math. I tried to leave the spelling and grammar as they wrote it, but I’ll admit I did make a few corrections on some. In no particular order:

 

You have been the best math teacher ever. There are so many things that you do for our class. You never give us up, you never get us down.

I have learned a lot this school year. I learned that hard work is very, very important, and to have a growth mindset. In this class, i’ve been pushed harder than I ever have before in school. Your 6th period class, and all your other math classes next year, will be very lucky to have you.

When I first entered your class I was extremely intimidated by you (I still kind of am…) but not I am less scared of you and would maybe be able to talk to you and have a little conversation.

Thank you for being such a great teacher and ending my school day on a good note. Thank you for teaching me to find the hypotenuse, the area of a sphere, advanced algebra, etc. Something I enjoyed in your class is the way you teach, you always teach like your there cause you want to be there and love to teach. One other thing I like about your class is you don’t always follow the lines, you don’t always know what lesson your going to do or do the one that you have planned but nevertheless come up with an amazing lesson. So thank you for being a great teacher.

I am now saving up to get the 50 chicken nuggets from Wendy’s. I would not know about this if it werent for your class, and i would not know multiple other things. Thank you for Teaching me these things, and i can safely say that this year was Better with you in it.

Dear Mr. Burrill, I learned how to caculate the area of a curcal. Sincerely, Jacob

One of the things I enjoyed the most was whenever someone didn’t know what we were talking about and asked you could explain, but the good part in this was when you gave an extra credit ticket for them asking even though they didn’t know the subject of the day.

I have a learned a lot in this class but one thing I enjoyed was when you would tell stories to da class about your past and your life. You are a great teacher and great person. Something I enjoyed while having you as a teacher is that, you make everything positive or funny in a way, and you dont get made easily. -A.W.

I loved this class because of you. You made math fun again. I didn’t like math and for that I didn’t do that good in it. My last grade in math before I came here was a C. You made me like math because of your humor and pushed me to do my best.

I owe you a lot because in 6th grade I got a 16% grade for math and now I have a 98%. Also I want to become a math teacher because of you. So thank you for teaching me to try, and thank you for the inspiration to become a math teacher.

This year has been very chaotic. Whenever I got to go to 3rd period It made my day a whole lot better. I appreciate you always being there for me. When I was having a hard time and my sister made it worse, you were there to make me feel better, and more confident. I’m going to miss you and this class.

Joke: What has 4 legs and is all green? Grass, I lied about the legs.

I have never really liked math but this year i did. Math isnt my best academic subject and I always had a bad grades in math except this year so thank you for teaching the way you teach.

One thing I learned is to never let our guards down, a really valuable lesson you taught me. Something about me that I myself find hilarious is, ever since you told us so many stories, I never want them to end, even if it’s funny or not. The stories you tell us have a life lesson or something we just know. My all-time favorite is when you told the class you would give rides to people who had come from jail. Makes/Helps me know to always be there for someone because you never know what the are going through. All of your stories bring joy to my day!

Something I learned in this class was never give up and try my best.

Thank you for being one of the nicest math teachers. Something I learned over time is that math isn’t that hard. You just have to study… You are a great and funny teacher and hopefully you get a raise for that cause you deserve a raise. Hopefully, the 7th graders will like you and not hate you.

I also learned that if you get a loan you would have to pay it back. I never knew that so thank you because that will help me in life when I’m older.

It was fun having you as my math teacher, you made math a little more fun like it wasn’t so bad and I learned a lot from you, but not just math but about life too. Also I learned from your stories because I could always find something to do different or what do to in some situations. Your math lessons were also very helpful. I don’t know, there was just something about them that made me learn faster and easier. OMG HOMEROOM!!! I loved homeroom. It was so fun and like I said your stories are the best!! Because they weren’t just stories it was a lesson to learn from and take things to do different. I actually took a lot of things from those lessons. So thank you. You’re my 2nd favorite teacher. I’ll come visit you when I can, I promise. 😊

I really enjoyed being in your class this year. I had fun learning. The way you taught was amazing. You have always been on of my favorite Teachers but Mr. Thomas will always be #1. Sorry. You come in 2nd place tho, that’s still good.

I really enjoyed attending your class this year. I learned that best way to enjoy your math class is by being yourself. I also learned that you learn the most when you try. I think I learned some math. I know I learned some life lessons along the way. You make me laugh every time I am in your class. I have never liked math my whole life but now math is one of my favorite classes. You made math fun for me. I really enjoyed going to my Tuesday after school class, it helped me a lot. I think homeroom on Fridays are the best days. I love listening to your stories. I hope you keep teaching math. You’re a great teacher and a funny teacher.

 

Wednesday, January 5, 2022

Ten-Star Notes

 For years I've taken 2 days each year to not teach about math and focus directly on topics I would like students to learn that I may not be addressing in class. However, with the pandemic of the last couple years and some non-traditional teaching before that it has been quite a while since I've done the lesson. Sometimes the kids didn't always get exactly the point of I was making, but for the most part I was pretty darn proud reading their notes. Here are a few samples: