Expected, Inspected, & Respected.
"We do not learn from experience … we learn from reflecting on experience."
-John Dewey |
"We do not learn from experience … we learn from reflecting on experience."
-John Dewey |
My practicum class has been having some problems with keeping graffiti off of their desks. A few of them are serial offenders, not seeming able to keep themselves from doodling in pencil on their desktops. It was probably a mistake when I made an offhand comment about how, in an upcoming lesson, we would be getting the chance to scribble on our desks in order to test a variety of household cleaners. Several of them got started scribbling right away, thinking they were on task. I wasn't happy with the kids who thought I was giving them permission to immediately scribble on their desks, but I realized it was at least partly my fault for not anticipating this reaction. I should have told them explicitly not to take my comment as an invitation to start vandalizing. So today, when I was discussing the subject with the class again, I prefaced my discussion of the assignment by saying, "Please don't take this as an invitation to draw on your desks..." One student must have thought I said, "I invite you to draw wildly on your desks!" Again, this is partly my fault. If I want to be clearly understood, I need to express my expectations as clearly and as simply as possible. So I said in my very stern teacher voice, the one where the class gets very quiet and nobody moves, "Please do not draw on your desks right now!" I don't like getting annoyed at the class and I don't like using that voice. Next time I should say that same simplified instruction before I begin in order to prevent the misunderstanding in the first place. It wasn't a big deal but it does make me want to SMH.
1 Comment
|
David Wiebe
|