Blog Assignment: In a profession as challenging as teaching, honest self-reflection is key. That means that we must regularly examine what has worked and what hasn't worked in the classroom... This year, what has worked and what hasn't worked in your classroom. What will you do differently?
I feel like this post resembles very closely the prompt from the first blog so I will try not to make my answers too similar.
Regarding what hasn't worked well in the classroom (trying to end on a positive note this time :) ), I am almost daily reminded of the challenge of teaching large classes. My College Composition classes have a cap of 20 so they're my smallest classes. (One Comp class has 16.) This is helpful because class discussion can always be respectful, and there is always silence in the room when someone else is speaking. My Junior English courses, however, have 27 and 29 people each. This is terrifying to me as a college instructor who before taught at most 20 kids. (Even when I was on the creative writing workshop circuit for the Arizona Libraries, my biggest workshop only ever had 25 people --and I wasn't grading their work.) I daily struggle with keeping the attention of 29 squirrelly teenagers who have just come in from lunch. My 5th period in following lunch is the largest class, they're sleepy, they're tired from playing sports on the filed, and they've already heard about "what we're doing today" so there's no element of surprise on my part (I like to keep a little mystery in the class because I feel like it encourages curiosity). It seems these kids are bored when they walk in the door. Things are getting better, I think because we're creating more of a rapport. One thing I learned pretty quickly about teaching is that even if the students know each other before they enter the room, each classroom has a different chemistry and a different environment. These kids --though they know each other from being at a small school-- are learning the chemistry with these exact peers at this time of the day and with this teacher. They're starting to get the hang of things, though I still struggle with keeping all 29 students' attention, especially when I open the class to group discussion and the more quiet girls speak --I often lose the other half of the room, the half that can't hear those quiet girls. It's a learning experience, but we're getting there.
As to what I'll do differently, an English teacher's go-to plan is always to do some more reading on the topic and see what she can learn. I'm sure there's got to be something about that in the one of many pedagogical texts I have, not to mention online forums.
Regarding what has worked in the classroom, I'm learning that one of the best things I added was something called "Classroom Skills Points." Each student has a 100 point bank that is theirs to treat as a bank account. If they get extra credit (rare opportunities), the extra credit goes into this bank. If, however, they're talking too much and I take 5 points off, it comes from this bank, too. What I find the most helpful this year is that I added a policy for lack of preparation. If students need to run to their car to get their homework, or to run to their locker to get their book, or run to another classroom because they forgot their tablet charger, I'll ask, "Is it worth 5 points?" They'll often say it's not which not only keeps them in my classroom by their own choice, but it also mildly traumatizes them into realizing they need to be more prepared for next time. The rate of forgetfulness has dropped significantly from last year, and students are (overall) more prepared for class --by their own choice. I love it.
Thanks for reading!
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