End of Semester Reflections
I think I'll use my last blog entry before winter break to consider what's gone well this semester and what needs to be changed. Let's start with the good, and then we'll explore the bad and the ugly.
The Good:
1. Philosophy books
2. Essay tests instead of scantron (They better assess whether or not my students are improving in their "essential learnings")
3. The blog--both academic entries and random ones (Gives us time to discuss extra issues, to get to know each other, to pose questions, to give voice to quiet students, and to put students in the driver's seat)
4. Including my students' voices in discussions of what's "best" for them (Why speculate on what they want and need when they are capable of telling you themselves?)
5. The remote mouse with laser (makes me feel like I'm on Star Trek: The Next Generation)
The Bad and the Ugly
1. Grades, grades, grades
2. Vocabulary (I'm up to my chin in fun vocab. activities, but it still doesn't feel like an integrated part of the course)
3. Grammar/Spelling (Why don't they learn this in elementary and middle school?)
4. Writing in my regular classes (I need more of it, which means I need to find a more efficient way to grade)
5. Finding thematic connections in English 10 (Fahrenheit 451, Of Mice and Men, and A Midsummer Night's Dream don't naturally click together, somehow)
6. ALIS (it somehow devoured at least a third of the semester, chewing up and spitting out some excellent short stories and poems as it marched its way to the finish line)
I took so much away from yesterday's discussion...As a final thought here, it is an honor to be part of a group that gets me excited about changing and improving the strucutre of my classes (and, I might add, it's not too easy to get me excited when I'm as stressed and sleep-deprived as I am this week). So, thanks!
posted by Kristin L @ 11:43 AM
3 Comments:
I agree with Doug on this one. Vocab was okay, but it did eat up a lot of classtime that could have been used better.
I truly enjoyed your class this semester. I feel that this was one of my best semesters in an English class. ALIS was interesting--time consuming, but interesting. Everything we did and discussed was amazing. Thanks for such a great class!
Wow, doug had a lot to say. I'm going to agree with him in that it's no fun to agree with classmates all the time. But really, I love this class. It is the only class I'm currently in which allows the students to teach ourselvces and see everyone else's viewpoints as opposed to just the teacher's. The discussions could easily be the most useful part of the class. Debates and disagreements in class force us to support our points with valid data, and it's exceedingly more exciting than taking notes on powerpoints all day.
And I entirely agree that spelling and grammar should have been taught a long time ago. By this age, we have all been exposed to english and the grammar of it for around 15 years of our lives, if we don't get it by now, I think we're doomed. Spending upwards of two weeks of last year learning to properly use commas was such a waste of time. In an honors class no less, we actually spent time on commas, pathetic.
But I would say that the best part of class would just having a teacher that talks to us like actual, genuine people. That's all a class really needs. Really, I'm not even sucking up here. That's what education really needs, teachers who see their students as real people with valid opinions worth listening to. We appreciate it a lot to actually have a teacher who is willing to talk to us rather than talk at us.
"We appreciate it a lot to actually have a teacher who is willing to talk to us rather than talk at us." This is such a powerful statement and one I will not soon forget. As a teacher, I want my students to know that I care about them, I treasure their thoughts and opinions, and hope to let them direct their own learning (at least to what extent that can be done in mathematics!).
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