This week’s reading assignment covers three chapters in First Day to Final Grade. I found several key points and interesting ideas from each chapter that are showing me ways that I can improve my teaching. The great thing about this book is that it sheds light on classroom situations that I have never thought about before or encountered. Every chapter makes me feel more prepared for things that I will face as a teacher.

Chapter 3 makes me think about having one or two main goals for each lecture. I like the idea of having a consistent personal goal of going to each class with a key point or two in mind. My goal concept varies a bit from the book’s concept. I want to go to each class having a main focus (being my goal of what I want them to take home from the lecture). Having this goal will help me be more prepared for each class and will give me a key point for which to base my content on. I think it will allow me to teach students so they can see the ‘bigger picture’.

Another part of the chapter I like is the addressing problems portion. I have seen these situations firsthand and I’ve always wondered what the teacher’s role is in stepping in. For example, the student that comes in late to every class and disrupts everyone’s learning. My inclination would be to lock the doors so the student would learn that he/she has to be there on time. The book recommends addressing this with the student and asking why they are late to every class. This is good advice for me because I didn’t really consider that a student would be late for any reason than poor time management. A late student is frustrating, but I guess if there is a good reason accommodations can and should be made.

The information about running a discussion is especially helpful. Initiating an organized discussion, in my case, has typically happened on accident. My biggest challenge has been getting students to speak up. In some groups discussions come easily, and in other groups it feels like pulling teeth! A few ideas from the book to help keep the discussion moving are to provide input and feedback, offer different view points, and be supportive of student's ideas, even if they aren’t necessarily what I agree with.

I can benefit from the tips for handling different kinds of students. Again, I have always wondered how much a teacher can intervene. As an undergraduate, I was constantly getting frustrated with the girls whispering in class, or students dozing off. I wondered why they would come if they weren’t going to listen. I also wondered why the professor never did anything to stsop it. I like the suggested subtle ways of controlling whisperers by standing by those students when you’re teaching, or halting the discussion until they realize they are the only ones talking. I don’t want to humiliate any students, but I expect respect and want other students to be able to listen undisrupted.

From the Running a Discussion chapter, I do not think I will use advice from the subsection about handling quiet students. I agree that quiet students should be made to feel comfortable so they can have a voice in the class. Although, I also feel like putting too much effort into making them feel comfortable could take away time from all the other students. I also feel like if a student wants to be quiet in class, that’s his or her decision. If participation is part of the grade and they don’t participate, that is something they personally need to address. If a student is motivated enough to attend college they should be motivated enough to be able to find their own voice and use it when they have to. I think elementary and high school are good places for teachers to get more involved with quiet students, but at a college level a professor shouldn’t be expected to spend time trying to get someone to speak up.

I really enjoyed the activity ideas from the Trusty Class Plans chapter. I found the steps for running a debate to be the most interesting. As I mentioned in my first paragraph, there are many things covered in this book that I have not yet had to deal with. This book is showing me how I may have screwed things up had I not considered all the components. For example, there are several components to running a debate. The grouping strategies are good ideas for dividing the room instead of just asking the students to split into two groups. I like these ideas because it seems students don’t naturally split themselves into even groups, so this makes the dividing process quick and easy. The downside to this is that they may not agree on the side of the issue you put them on. The steps for a debate give me a clear outline of how I can run and wrap up a debate effectively. The options on how to organize who talks when, and how groups should respond to each other will be useful to me in the future.

In my field, which is science, I can implement a lot of these ideas. It’s crucial for me to know that students understand the concepts clearly. Science builds on itself and gets more in depth the more you learn. I think discussions and learning exercises are a great way to get students to participate and understand what they’ve learned.

Here are a few links that I found interesting…
The Importance of Teaching Goals

Example types of debates

Try to learn from this!....