How about a teacher's reflection on the first classes? OK, here goes...
I am committed to all students learning. I hope all students will stop worrying about their grade. I want every student to do their best work. Student surveys and interviews have indicated that the percent of students who do their best work is the highest in kindergarten. We have evidence that over 90% of kindergartners do their best work in kindergarten. I find it hard to imagine a kindergartner thinking, "I am only going to put about half an effort into coloring this pumpkin. I just need to pass this class."
Yes, the vast majority of kindergartners do their best work in class. However, the percentage of students doing best work drops each year to the lowest level, which occurs in the sophomore year of high school and then stays low. Between 10-15 of every 100 sophomores say they do their best work. What happens? How does the percentage of students doing best work drop from 90% in kindergarten to 10% in high school? Why does the percentage of student doing their best work on rise slightly in college?
Sir Ken Robinson argued that schools use ranking and sorting to educate creativity and the love of learning out of most students. When education happens, most students opt out and only work enough to get the course grade they want. Sometimes they want an A, a B, a C, a D, or even an F (to prove they couldn't do it).
In my first class of any semester, I want to explain what we (students and I) will be learning together. I review the syllabus; I give a broad explanation of the assignments; I explain how we will communicate throughout the semester. But, I have a much more important task; I clearly state I expect their best work in my class. In his book Quality School Teacher, William Glasser stated six conditions are needed for students to choose to complete their best work. I begin Glasser's first condition in my first class. His first condition is to change the environment in the classroom.
I begin my journey to build a warm and caring classroom learning environment, which is built upon trust. Glasser argued students need to know more about their teachers than most teachers divulge. He concluded students work hard for teachers they know and they like. Student won't believe I care about them before they know more about me. My most important task in every first class is to share myself, to tell who I am, to begin the telling of Dr. Robert. I named sharing myself and gaining student trust as "It's the Relationship Stupid".My teacher reflection of the week one classes is mixed. I explained my experiences in teaching/learning. I demonstrated my love of technology to make learning/teaching more efficient by using the app, Socrative. The students experienced sharing formative assessment with Socrative versus post-it note formative assessment.
I talked about my spouse, my children, and my grandchildren. I talked about how to follow me on Twitter and how to use text messages for immediate questions about assignments. I said, "I care about you and I will help you succeed in our class.
My reflection on my teaching is mixed because I did not convince every student. I could see it in some of their eyes. Some "eyes" looked back as me and said "sure, sure, we'll see".
Do they all know me well enough to do their best work instead of only enough work to get a grade. Probably not... yet. Thank goodness we have weeks 2-15. I Am a Teacher, I Rock!
PS: Are you a teacher who is in the middle of the school year. Everyday can be the first day. I encourage you to set about accomplishing Glasser's condition #1, Start tomorrow. Begin sharing who you are and what you stand for with students. Create a warm and caring learning environment built upon trust and acceptance of all, rather than an environment of sorting and classifying students. You and all your students need the caring, the trust, the acceptance.
Teachers Rock, Dr. Robert
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