Right Now
This is a response to the topic: what is going well and what is challenging? I would say that the blogging with my freshmen is going well so far. I am less involved in commenting than I was last year because I am learning to trust them to debate each other without my input. (Although I read their comments regularly.)
The challenge for me (as usual) is being constructivist with my junior Western Civ students. Part of the issue is that I only see them three days a week, so building the relationships with the students that are necessary for constructivism to work is more difficult than it is with my freshmen, who I see every single day. Also, when I do activities with my juniors, I find that some of them are so content to let others sit back and do the work. Being a constant task-master is not really contructivist, and asking the students to keep others on task really seems to divide the students sometimes. Interestingly, when I asked my 1st hour juniors about this on Monday after a constructivist activity, the only comment I got after about 1 very long minute of wait-time was from a former honors student of mine who said that she really learned more through the constructivist activity than she would have learned if I had delivered the information via a lecture. (Thank goodness.)
I guess my problem is this: as a person who likes nothing better than to be intellectually challenged, I just have a difficult time putting myself in the position of those students who are determined not to be interested. That may sound negative, and I am sure that I will get blasted for it, but I think that we can be great constructivists, etc., and yet students also need to bring something to the table. Most of them do, and I commend them for that. But it is sort of like standardized testing. Many of our students will put forth their best effort and do well. Some students will put forth their best effort and not do so well. However, some students will put forth very little effort, do poorly, and then the school will get blamed for not educating them properly. At what point do we put something back on students and stop blaming ourselves for everything??? Sorry that turned into a rant. I rarely do that but something in me snapped a bit.
The challenge for me (as usual) is being constructivist with my junior Western Civ students. Part of the issue is that I only see them three days a week, so building the relationships with the students that are necessary for constructivism to work is more difficult than it is with my freshmen, who I see every single day. Also, when I do activities with my juniors, I find that some of them are so content to let others sit back and do the work. Being a constant task-master is not really contructivist, and asking the students to keep others on task really seems to divide the students sometimes. Interestingly, when I asked my 1st hour juniors about this on Monday after a constructivist activity, the only comment I got after about 1 very long minute of wait-time was from a former honors student of mine who said that she really learned more through the constructivist activity than she would have learned if I had delivered the information via a lecture. (Thank goodness.)
I guess my problem is this: as a person who likes nothing better than to be intellectually challenged, I just have a difficult time putting myself in the position of those students who are determined not to be interested. That may sound negative, and I am sure that I will get blasted for it, but I think that we can be great constructivists, etc., and yet students also need to bring something to the table. Most of them do, and I commend them for that. But it is sort of like standardized testing. Many of our students will put forth their best effort and do well. Some students will put forth their best effort and not do so well. However, some students will put forth very little effort, do poorly, and then the school will get blamed for not educating them properly. At what point do we put something back on students and stop blaming ourselves for everything??? Sorry that turned into a rant. I rarely do that but something in me snapped a bit.
posted by Crosby at 10:48 PM
1 Comments:
If this is a rant, then you obviously haven't spent enough time around me.
I think many of us have been asking the same or similar questions. While we watched Abby's swimming class tonight I was talking about the same thing with my wife. What happens when the students don't come through? When we give them the opportunity to take more control over their own learning, when we do what we can to make it engaging and relevant, when we treat them as adults (or at least near-adults) with valid thoughts and opinions that matter - and then they treat it like just another meaningless assignment and do the minimum?
I'm feeling the same frustration and I'm not even in the classroom, so I think it's going around. It may be the time of year. Ray, Melissa and Karen talk about the "implementation dip" that new teachers go through about this time of year - maybe we are all going through it - including our students. I think we just have to keep trusting them - keep telling them over and over again how important it is for them - and for all of us - that they take this seriously and give it their best. That - in the end - it matters very little what we do as teachers if they don't step up and take responsibility for their own learning - and their own lives. I still gotta believe that they will ultimately respond to that.
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