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Wow! Your blog post was really interesting. It is is wild to think that there is also a difference between 6th and 7th hour. I have experienced that same think with 1st and 2nd hour for the 9th graders. What I noticed was that there seems to be a difference in motivation. 2nd hour is the most energetic class and i would say the volleyball girls are the ones that stand out the most. It was interesting to see this comparison because it seems like 2nd hour seems to be more intrinsically motivated than 1st hour. Although I really love yours and Mr. DuBe’s reflections on being your most authentic self, I wonder what can be done for a class that may not be engaged as much. I understand that a teacher will not always be the role model for all their students, but what is a teacher’s duty in engaging a class that interacts very differently than the 2nd hour. I think a lot about the diversity of class, race/ ethnicity, and backgrounds and how they may affect each class. I appreciated your post for making me dig a little deeper into this comparison between classrooms :))
I was always intrigued by Prairie Creek so I appreciated your response to the prompt today by emphasizing the respect for nature that students have in using the outdoors as a classroom. I really enjoyed your questions at the end because I have been thinking a lot about the role of outside learning for high school students and even college students. I personally feel like I would get distracted outside but it would definitely be helpful in expanding or getting a different angle at classrooms. What are your thoughts on learning outside for older students?
Hi Angela,
Similar to you, I also felt like it is hard for teachers to use strategies that emphasize one-on-one help. It feels like in large class sizes, the teachers sometimes has to default to students’ intrinsic motivation, which is problematic considering that not everyone is able to have that motivation for school. I admire Mrs. Talbot modeling the enthusiasm for her class and it seems to be working for math and how students react to wanting to answer the math problems Mrs. Talbot poses. I wonder how you will apply what you like from Mrs. Talbot’s teaching to your own lesson plan :))
I am really impressed by how Molly teaches her class. I admire her patience and flexibility with students of that age level and also how she navigated how the older kids were acting in front of the younger kids.
Your example of the rain and how Molly redirected the kids attention to what they were interested reminded me of videos I have been watching about Montessori education. It’s really interesting and I suggest you look into it because it might be that the school may be taking a similar approach considering that these are younger kids. I just really admire the autonomy that kids have in following their interests and how adult figures build trust by allowing their kids to explore.
Hey Chris!
I am also tutoring in Mr. DuBe’s language arts class, except mine is with the 9th graders. I will agree with you that I don’t see too much of a gender imbalance in the classroom except when it comes to tutoring. I wonder if you have experienced helping way more male identifying students than female identifying students? I wonder if it has to do with your comment that a lot of the girls seem to be way more prepared for class. Even when I have helped a girl from the class, she seemed to know what she wanted to write about and radiated more confidence than the boys I have tutored. I wonder how it may vary by subject. In my reflections from high school, I definitely saw this difference between STEM and my humanity classes and the gender participation.
I really enjoyed reading your blog post. I agree with you that in general there aren’t many spaces or times where students have the freedom to express themselves but I think in a way the music recommendations is a good one. Music is a huge way of expressing one’s mood, identity, etc, however, I can also see someone shying away from it for the fear that others might not like their suggestions. I appreciate Ms. Hebs making the effort to allow students to show off their personalities. I am wondering if Ms. Hebs also creates an atmosphere of creativity and expression within her classroom through decorations or classroom setup.
I really like the way you interact with students, I think it is very much the way I do as well in asking them questions. I wonder how you deal with students that don’t want to ask for help. For example, sometimes I see a student struggling, and rather than asking them if they need help, I ask them follow-up questions. In the case of the students that are on their phones, how do engage with them and make them feel seen?
I also really loved the picture you use and your analysis of the way you help students because you’re right in that not everyone understands things the same way, the thing that matters is how you do it and whether there is some improvement forward.
Science was always difficult to engage with, not because I wasn’t able to think abstractly, it just wasn’t interesting and some concepts were hard to grasp. Experiments always helped though. What do you think about students having the potential to grasp these concepts but it just takes longer. I do agree that some students may be slightly more behind than others but maybe it’s more about their potential to understand these topics. Maybe they’re not getting it taught in ways they understand it? These are just thoughts that came across for me reading your post, I’m excited to see what your experiences with tutoring students in the future will be though 🙂 I wonder if you will find students that may still be in the concrete operational stage.
