I think that part of a life skills course should include the following: In any social situation you are in, find what percentage of the present people YOU are, and then make sure you are trying your hardest to only hog that percentage of the conversation without giving quiet space for others to participate if they so choose. Also, use your inside voice.
That is my summer blogging contribution.
I have been to 2 workshops so far this summer, one for Digital Electronics and one for APCS. I am currently at the AP Annual Conference. They have all taught me things or enlightened me on things in one way or the other.
For example, I had students last year in various classes indicate that they felt stupid. That should never happen. I don't know that I did much more than reassure them that they were not stupid, but I didn't prove deeper to find out how to shift their perceptions.
This came up in my DE training. No one was stupid, but there were some teachers that were rushing through the curriculum and being very vocal and thus there were other teachers who were going at an appropriate pace but who felt stupid because of the inevitable comparison. I need to reflect on how to alleviate this situation when it happens in my classes. I also need to scaffold more or provide more scaffolding available for various learners and to make sure the kids take advantage of this. It is not a race.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post! I teach 1st grade and at times I find myself in the same situation when dealing with students. This is the grade where students just begin applying learned concepts in math, and when they are having a difficult time grasping it, some get extremely hard on themselves. I think by taking your approach to use more scaffolding to my learners having difficulty, it could give them a great deal of reassurance that they can be successful. I believe that for the younger kids especially, by making it a point to use real life application while teaching math, this could make it easier for struggling students to grasp a difficult concept. I will keep these strategies in mind for this upcoming school year!
I hope it works out for the both of us AND the students. This is going to be my big focus this year, to find efficient, useful, and tiered scaffolding techniques so the students don't feel "dumb" when they have to use them and at the same time DO use them and gain understanding.
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ReplyDeleteFollowing the pace of the students is very important. Forget about comparison. Here at a small review and tutorial center I'm working, teachers are coordinated. Healthy competition exist.
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