Survey of Students’ Subjects: Math and Mr. Brad

Everyone has opinions on their teachers, so what if you could see what others think as well. We will cover students’ thoughts on the Dean of Students, Mr. Brad, in this issue.

By Kenric and Charlie Hoang

A topic that will always come up when talking to friends about school is teachers. Hate ‘em or love ‘em, you have to see them almost every day and are bound to form opinions on them. Well, you are in the same position as the rest of your peers, so why not hear their opinions as well. This issue, we will review some students’ thoughts on Mr. Brad’s class and teaching methods. As expected, most of these students had positive thoughts on his teaching style.

As the Dean of Students himself, Mr. Brad has been with Alsion the longest out of the middle school staff due to a change of staff over the past few years. Along with his prior experience at other schools like Challenger, Mr. Brad has adjusted his teaching style to benefit Alsion’s students most in their understanding of math. This reflects well in our responses with comments such as “[Mr. Brad’s] style of teaching is very informative and engaging” and that “he teaches us well and helps us if we need it.” These are the core qualities of good teaching, which Mr. Brad appears not only to have but also excels at. A student added that these qualities of Mr. Brad’s teaching style “make it effortless to follow along in class as you are always thinking.” Math is a tough subject and it can be hard to maintain focus while learning it when running into confusing road bumps and even blocks. Mr. Brad teaches it so that his students can coast right over these bumps and give them a lift when they encounter the blocks.

While Mr. Brad’s teaching style is already strong in its efficiency, a part of his ability to engage students is due to his personality. Quite a few of the students commented on Mr. Brad’s good humor. As mentioned before, math can be a bit of a tough subject, and therefore, a bit boring at some points. Mr. Brad keeps the class engaged by making a few witty remarks or mentioning anecdotes from his own life. This also helps him connect to students on a more personal level, much more than those boring, monotone teachers that everyone knows. Humans are social creatures and pick up on the energy of others. Mr. Brad keeps his class enthusiastic about math by being enthusiastic himself.

Of course, no one is perfect, even the Dean of Students himself, so we also asked students for any criticism they had of Mr. Brad’s class. The main gripe that people had with Mr. Brad’s class was that he talks too much. I know, Mr. Brad gets annoying, but on a more serious note, burnout from learning hard subjects is very real. I think that this problem was heavily amplified by the switch to block schedules for middle school classes. Doing math for 2 hours at once is quite a bit, even for the more interested students. One of the students said that they “Definitely would appreciate more breaks as some of the knowledge takes some time to process.” This is rather valid as the time for topics to sink in is hardly any to two whole days depending if the topics are learned closer to the beginning or end of a class.

Mr. Brad is quite popular with the students here at Alsion for his effective teaching and good humor. His area for improvement is mostly caused by the changed schedule, but there is unfortunately not much leeway with this timing. Hopefully, the newer students will get to know him as well as we older students do when the biome trip comes around later in the year. But even for now, Mr. Brad and his teaching style are held in high regard by most of Alsion’s students.