Today the name of the game is collaboration. It’s a Tuesday, which means that I have a few free periods that were spent meeting with my cooperating teachers and helping other students succeed.
In tenth grade we had a good class. The students were motivated and teaching just felt natural and a good progression today. I still have one student that is having a little problem of paying attention all the time. That is a conversation that I need to have with him and lay out some boundaries and expectations.
In ninth grade, I handed back the feedback that Anne and I completed earlier in the day (look for another blog post titled “Grading Reflection: Part One.” It was really nice to read the students’ blog entries from last night and get some of their questions answered today in class. It was a high order at times keeping them on task, but I managed and am looking forward to tomorrow. See I set forth this ultimatum that if they did not have their introduction and first paragraphs done then they would have to sit in the hallway with Anne while I move forward with peer editing and the rest of the class. I am a little nervous about how that will all turn out, because a lot of them only have one or two sentences complete. However, they asked for time to work and I gave it to them today. They should have no excuses what so ever. We will see though.
Quote of the Day: In English 10 we were discussing effective group work in relation to communication (they are preparing for acting companies and acting out Act Two of Macbeth).
Randon: So what do you do in a group situation if you don’t like someone’s idea?
Male 10th grade student: Tell them straight up, “I hate your idea.”
Take Away: Education is all about learning, collaborating, and learning some more. It never stops. As educators we continue to try new things, or at least we should be, and we continually want to make our practice better, which we should also be striving to do too. It was really enjoyable to collaborate with Anne and in the future Kristin will be pulled into those conversations, but that is what education is all about learning. Today I did a lot of learning on a lot of different levels, and it was a great experience. I look to build on my learning in future days, weeks, and months.
