Thursday, December 10, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Heart Warmers
I'm writing to brag about my second hour class. They are seriously some of the nicest kids I have ever met. I thought last week that I really loved the kids who sit near my desk and the rest who sit in the front, but then, looking around, I realized that I'd love to have any of these kids up front! They're all so bright and engaged in the content. Not everyone is a participant in discussions, but they're all listening intently and engaged in the conversation in some way.
One pair just said that they needed the reading for the day, but there weren't enough copies, so another pair offered to share their reading right away. Most of them get along really well, and there are groups, but not cliques, and most students are welcoming to new friends in the class.
I do worry about one student, who always sits alone. He doesn't make eye contact with anyone else in the class, and I worry that he may be lonely or feel like an outsider. Does he do this on purpose? Or do the other kids do this to him? :-/
That's not as heart warming, but the rest of it is.
One pair just said that they needed the reading for the day, but there weren't enough copies, so another pair offered to share their reading right away. Most of them get along really well, and there are groups, but not cliques, and most students are welcoming to new friends in the class.
I do worry about one student, who always sits alone. He doesn't make eye contact with anyone else in the class, and I worry that he may be lonely or feel like an outsider. Does he do this on purpose? Or do the other kids do this to him? :-/
That's not as heart warming, but the rest of it is.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Wrapping up the semester
So this semester has been pretty good in the placement. I really love my kids. They're all such bright individuals, and they've just started saying hi to me in the halls, which I think is a big deal, because before they were just ignoring me and hoping I wouldn't say hi to them. I even have one student who will stop and talk to me. I am such a dork. :-P But I also think that this is because I try really hard to relate to the kids on a professional-personal level. I'm their friend and teacher, but not their buddy or wanna-be buddy or authoritarian. There is a group of friends in one of my hours who has shifted from trying to be my buddies to trying not to draw attention to themselves when they do something obnoxious or wrong (they never succeed). This is because, before, they thought that they could get away with things because of my friendly demeanor with the students, but now I have also established myself as an authority figure, and I don't put up with their disruptive behavior. They don't like this, but the rest of the class respects me more than before, so tough cookies for them.
I also think that my teaching has strengthened through the advice of my mentor and field instructor. Simple things, like not losing the volume of my voice when I'm unsure, keep me looking confident and let the students trust my knowledge more. I also try to relate more to pop culture when it's possible in my examples. I like to loosen up the mood of the classroom and let students be themselves there.
I did recently find that many of my students plagiarize and then pretend not to know that they did it (even when copying and pasting from wikipedia). I was really disappointed to find that they would go to such great lengths to save their own grades, but not to do the actual work and learn and keep some semblance of integrity. This is not the first problem I've had with cheating in this class, and when I have more control over their grades, they will be very sorry to cheat. I'm going to make it clear the first day of my unit that if I catch anyone plagiarizing or copying, it will result in an immediate zero, no matter the assignment. (Maybe I'll secretly plan to let them off the hook with a second chance later, but they shouldn't know it's an option when they're doing their original work.) I let them know that plagiarism is illegal and will get them kicked out of college completely, but they still seem to be struggling to step up and do their own work.
More later, class just ended!
I also think that my teaching has strengthened through the advice of my mentor and field instructor. Simple things, like not losing the volume of my voice when I'm unsure, keep me looking confident and let the students trust my knowledge more. I also try to relate more to pop culture when it's possible in my examples. I like to loosen up the mood of the classroom and let students be themselves there.
I did recently find that many of my students plagiarize and then pretend not to know that they did it (even when copying and pasting from wikipedia). I was really disappointed to find that they would go to such great lengths to save their own grades, but not to do the actual work and learn and keep some semblance of integrity. This is not the first problem I've had with cheating in this class, and when I have more control over their grades, they will be very sorry to cheat. I'm going to make it clear the first day of my unit that if I catch anyone plagiarizing or copying, it will result in an immediate zero, no matter the assignment. (Maybe I'll secretly plan to let them off the hook with a second chance later, but they shouldn't know it's an option when they're doing their original work.) I let them know that plagiarism is illegal and will get them kicked out of college completely, but they still seem to be struggling to step up and do their own work.
More later, class just ended!
A poor example, but a good lesson.
I recently saw an example of teaching that really bothered me. This is a person who constantly disrupts class to nit pick little things. Like if a student is trying to find a notebook in his/her backpack, she will stop class to say, "Ok, what's going on? Right, right. Well, are we okay now?" I feel like it's a really big waste of class time to disrupt the entire class and call out a person she perceives as disrupting the class, but who could have just found the notebook within ten seconds and the class would never have noticed.
This was a good lesson in picking one's battles in the classroom. I feel like you set examples with big disruptions and let kids know the consequences if they're going to be disruptive there on. But to nit pick on little things that do no harm, like finding a notebook that only has the attention of one or two students, is really counter productive in setting an example of proper conduct. So we need to be careful in picking our battles, so as not to exemplify the behavior we try to stop.
This was a good lesson in picking one's battles in the classroom. I feel like you set examples with big disruptions and let kids know the consequences if they're going to be disruptive there on. But to nit pick on little things that do no harm, like finding a notebook that only has the attention of one or two students, is really counter productive in setting an example of proper conduct. So we need to be careful in picking our battles, so as not to exemplify the behavior we try to stop.
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