It occurred to me a while ago that the thing that I miss is being a valued partner in the education process. If asked I think that my bosses would state that I do a good job, get good AP results, and have a good work ethic. So in no way do I think that they are down on the job I do. What I do not think is that they value me as a partner, which bothers me. When I was at Eastern Tech we had great results turning that school into an academic powerhouse because all the stake holders felt like valued partners. My opinion was sought out, valued and often implemented.
It now occurs to me that having this type of relationship is important to the educational process. So since I am in charge of my classroom I need to figure out a way to make my students feel like valued partners. I realize that I am failing at that now and need feedback on how to make that happen.
So I hope that you chime in and give me suggestions on how to develop a partnership between student and teacher to make the educational experience the best it can be. I really want only things that I can control so that I can model it in my classroom.
Let the ideas flow.
I think you already give us a good deal of latitude in class and involve us when possible. The only thing I think we could improve is better student accountability. Such as we have in my ap physics class, mr. Shaw assigns us each a problem from our unit set to be able to present to our classmates if they have questions. I like this since it encourages us to learn one area in depth and help each other but does not require much class time.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea now I need to figure out how to implement it for the class. thanks for taking the time to help me
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ReplyDeleteI am also a firm believer that students and teachers should be partners in the education process. In my internship with the Spanish AVID class I try to explain to these underclassmen that emailing teachers, staying after class, and really building good relationships with their teachers is extremely important in making their learning process better.
Having said that, I think that it really depends on the class. Certain classes allow for more group work and discussion, and others require more lectures from teachers. I really like the idea to have one person running the graphing Wednesdays because that gives that person a chance to really have to understand the graphs. I will always remember Mr. Stranathan from 9th grade Biology telling me that you really know a set of material if you can teach it to someone else.
I think with availability you do a really great job in providing times for your students to come in and take the initiative to review and get help. Being so available reminds me more of a college professor, and I think the majority of your students would agree you do a good job at this. Personally, I think the economics material and curriculum isn’t like a class I have ever taken before, so I get a lot of benefit from watching the power points and listening to the “lecture”.
For me, to feel like a valued member of the process, I think it has been having good relationships with my teachers. Also when I feel prepared for an exam or a quiz, it makes me value my own initiative in studying or coming to review.
I’m not sure if this answers your question at all, but I think for me in economics, I feel I have a valued opinion, and I feel very much in control of my learning and results. I have learned over time that if I wanted to have the best education I could, I would have to use all my resources, which in turn becomes teachers. When students use this resource, they are satisfied with the relationship they have built and also the material they have learned.
Isabel
Yo I think it's easy for students to sit back and say nothing instead of speaking up if they don't understand something. So having them explain concepts to the rest of the class is a great thing.
ReplyDeleteYeah, sorry I didn't say anything new but thought I'd offer my reasoning behind that.
ReplyDeleteI think you already do a great job of making us feel valued in our class. Just asking us how you can make it so we feel more valued is just one of the ways you are already accomplishing what you want to.
That being said, I could only come up with a couple ideas to make us feel more valued. One idea is that for units that could have a project related to it, you could have us come up with project/activity ideas or we could just do a project that you come up with for that unit. We couldn't do this for every unit but activities like when we sold the pearl was fun. Even if a couple kids came up with an activity or project for the whole class, I think that could be fun and a good way for everyone to better grasp the material. The other idea I had was if time allows at the end of the class period on Friday, you could just open up the class to any questions we have about anything we learned that week. That way students could go into the weekend confident of the knowledge they learned that week and be ready to read into the next chapter. That's really all I could think of!