Student Questions

In my mind I believe I keep a neutral face when I answer student questions. Most of the time it's okay, but I'm thinking of those times when you JUST answered something 2 seconds ago, and then 5 more students ask in a row the same question. I know, I know, it's human nature, and you're multitasking, and you may have been concentrating on something else when it was answered, etc, but still, MY human-ness makes me roll my eyes (on the inside) and say to myself (on the inside), "for the love of G**, I JUST answered that" all the while .... blank face ..... or to vary it up a bit, a wry smile ... and answer the same question again.

Or those times, when someone asks a bizarre math question (or at least it seems bizarre to me) .... blank face.

So anyway. Today in precalculus, someone was asking a math-related question, and then, I don't know, for some reason, I felt all the other students' eyes on me to see my reaction as I answered the question. It sort of felt like, "let's see how she handles this potentially silly question ... (but I don't know if it's silly because I sort of want to know it, too .... but maybe it's silly ... let me see), so that I know in the future if it will be safe to ask MY question or will she make me feel bad, so I'll just be quiet."

It just hit me again, that the judging of "playing school" goes both ways. We judge constantly how the students are being students, and they judge in all situations if it's okay to learn however they need to learn, or if they have to be on guard about things around you.

Or maybe I'm reading too much into it, and they were just staring at me because I looked so tired or it was just a place to rest their eyes.