Thursday, June 28, 2012
The long and the short of it
During my daily dogs walks with Lizzie and Schooner I ponder and reflect a lot about teaching, learning and young adolescent students. I frequently see the world of teaching through a similar lens as providing successful walks with my dogs.
When I work with young adolescents and or observe at schools I am constantly reminded of classroom behaviors that students need for successful learning and instructional behaviors that teachers need to practice to ensure their students have successful classroom experiences. Like my need to provide my dogs successful walks.
In addition to knowing how to control the middle path of different directions on my daily dog walks with Lizzie and Schooner (see the post The Middle Way – the Balanced Classroom) I have learned that each dog prefers – and more honestly speaking - needs a certain leash. Lizzie likes a long leash so she can explore her environment on her walks. She needs a little extra freedom that comes with a longer leash. She likes to explore and take risks and is very sociable and barks at every dog she sees.
On the other hand, Schooner needs a short leash. When he is on a longer leash his legs gets caught in it. He does not like the slack of a longer leash – he will sometimes just stop walking until I tighten the leash. Schooner is a creature of habit. He does not like going in different directions on a walk and likes doing his business in the same places. If we go another direction on a walk he is not sure where to do his business. Because of this he is very stubborn and sometimes will stop walking. He puts his breaks on and looks at me as if saying, “You can’t make me walk that way. I dare you.”
Somehow they each know the difference between the two leashes we use. Sometimes, especially when I am in a hurry, I put the wrong leash on them. After we walk out of the yard to start our walks they both will almost freeze – because they are uncomfortable – somehow they know the difference between the leashes. Maybe they know the color they usually wear or can tell by the weight of the leash – all I know is that each of them wants to wear his leash or her leash.
Schooner also likes to carry one of his stuff pet animals with him on our walks. They seem to provide him a little extra security on our walks – like preschools and elementary students, and yes, even some young adolescents carry a small security toy or security token to help them make it through the day, Schooner needs one of his toys. Lizzie has absolutely no need to carry a toy with her.
I think of this middle road of appropriate understanding for Lizzie and Schooner behaviors and how it applies to successful dog walks parallels to teacher behaviors and student behaviors for successful classroom learning and teaching.
Some students need more flexibility and room to roam, think and to act in order to learn while other student needs a tighter leash – they cannot handle extra freedom and flexibility. Some students may need pipe cleaners to help them focus in class while others will never use them. It is our jobs as educators to know how to engage different kinds of student behaviors and what is expected and needed for successful class.
If I expect Lizzie and Schooner to have a successful dog walk I need to appreciate their differences and how to ensure that I provide the correct materials and environment for them. Just like I cannot blame my students’ innate needs in what works best for them. I cannot blame Lizzie if she cannot handle a shorter leash nor can I blame Schooner if he cannot handle a longer leash. That is who they are for whatever reason. As an educator I need to be able to identify complications, struggles and successes my student have and need.
Middle level educators can recognize most of their students’ needs – but it can be challenging to actually meet each student’s needs, especially everyday. Is this why that each child in each class does not have a successful day every day? Is it even a reasonable expectation that each teacher can meet the needs of each student each day each week each month to ensure each student’s daily success?
It is remarkable that educators are expected to ensure success for each student each day each week and each month. It is hard to imagine that this is even a possibility. What other profession expects such ultimate success and has the same expectations? Maybe a pilot to ensure that the plane departs and lands successfully. Maybe a physician to make sure each patient has a successful visit – but a physician meets with one patient at a time. But educators – we have many students at one time, each with unique needs and we are expected to ensure each student’s success – some teacher can do an amazing job of it – while others do not fair so well.
How do educators decide how to focus their attention for student success or teaching success for learning success? Do certain students get more attention than others because they are easier to work with while others are more challenging because they need more attention? Or “their way?” Because of Schooner’s need to have a routine, and less of a need to explore and take risks on our daily dog walks go more in his direction, just like more needy students often determine the direction a class moves. Does Lizzie get less of an experience because she has to follow the needed routine of Schooner?
How do educators decide how to tighten or loosen the leashes? Do Lizzie like students get a better walk or a better learning day or do Schooner like students demand the direction of the walk or the direction of the class?
What do you think? How do you plan to or how do you address the Lizzie like and the Schooner like students in your classroom as well as the Max, Buddy, Alice, Daisy, Coco
, Lily
, Princess
, Emma
, Annie, Rosie
, Ruby, Lady
, Rocky, Charlie, Buster
, Lucky
, Oliver
, Oscar
, Rusty
, Lulu
, Brandy, Jasmine and Dakota like students? What are your thoughts?
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22 comments:
This post made me think of the way that I approach every morning before school begins. I wake up, shower the grogginess away, and do my stretches. My stretches are a (hilarious to watch) amalgam of movements I've learned from participating in sports and movement and speech classes. Without this preparation, my brain and body are far more likely to fail me. I can't think straight otherwise.
I have high expectations for myself as a teacher, so I have treat every day like it's a performance. Part of the reason that these stretches in the morning work is that they quietly remind me to expect anything in school that day. Not only am I expecting anything, but I am already one step ahead of anything that goes wrong.
Much like this piece, I wonder how my students will be. I never, ever expect them to be a certain way, so to speak. If you have five or six classes of students with a class size ranging from 29-36 students, there is no feasible way you can know every student who is struggling, or having problems at home, or is falling asleep in your class because they're a semester behind in their work and they're afraid to tell anyone.
The moment you expect your students to act as a giant droning hive mind is the moment you have lost your focus as an educator. The kids are the focus. Not your schedule. Not your lack of free time. Not your stacks of essays you have to grade. All of that you need to worry about on your time. When you're in the classroom, the kids need all of you, cranking at 100%. The least you can do for them is stop assuming you know how they should be acting, thinking or speaking.
Now, I'm not saying I'm comfortable letting the inmates run the asylum, so to speak. However, I do think an integral part of a successful classroom environment is mutual respect for each individual learner. This means you never grossly generalize in your teaching or general interactions with students. Honor their individuality and everyone in the equation will reap the benefits.
As the new school year is quickly approaching, I think about the 5th grade articulation meetings I attended in January. I know that it is important to really 'know' your students, but at this age, going into middle school, there are so many factors that influence who they are. They change so much each year of middle school both physically and emotionally. Coming into the school for 6th grade is very intimidating, especially since they just left 5th grade being the oldest and BMOC of their school. Middle school is so different with changing classrooms, different teachers with different styles and personalities, lockers and locker combinations, new students from other elementary schools...The list goes on. I feel that I need to take last year's teacher's comments with a grain of salt. Each student I see comes to the party with a clean slate.
As far as my philosophy on students and dogs (I'm a dog owner and lover as well), I feel that our student's likes, dislikes, characteristics change significantly more than our pets do. I do agree that you need to really get to know them both. You are right about that. Dogs are less variable and ultimately a whole lot easier than kids. If only my own children could have been house broken and taught to sleep through the night in only 3 days!!
Having been a dog owner as well, I recall the differences between each of my pets on their walks. Freckles would sit on the corner and look both ways before crossing the street to go to the park. Zoe will pull on any length leash and get tangled no matter what, though if ever not on her leash out of the house would not venture any further than the driveway. Max, on the other hand, would do sprints around the block until we gave up on chasing him and only then would her return to the front stoop and bark to be let in. Having not had all three dogs at once, I can only imagine the challenge it would have been to take them all for a walk at the same time. And yet, dogs have needs (walks, for example) and rely on their owners to provide for them.
Students also have various needs and, as challenging as it may be, it is the responsibility of a teacher to accommodate and provide for them. As it is pointed out in this post, when a classroom is full of students with different needs, different learning styles, it can be difficult to determine where the attention of the teacher should go. Is it reasonable to assume every student will be at their educational best every time they're in class? I am not at my best every day and wonder how to handle the responsibility of helping 25+ students be at theirs.
Having never taught before, I can only look to what I have experienced as a student to guide how I might handle such diversity of needs in my own classroom. Some students need more freedom in a classroom. They feel very well at ease working at a faster pace and taking matters into their own hands. As a teacher, I think it will be important to be a facilitator for such independence while still offering guidance and being available to answer questions and help solve problems as they arise. Maybe this is being a little idealistic; I'm not sure. On the other hand, some students are not comfortable with change (and as we all know, middle school is a time of GREAT change) or with taking the wheel and steering their own education. These students need more guidance and patience from their teachers in order to not fall behind or feel overwhelmed. What I imagine will be difficult is the initial class meetings in which I'm still trying to figure out which of my students need what and how to give them each the attention they need and deserve without leaving anyone in the shadows.
Addressing individual learners can be a challenge. At the elementary level we can at least provide centers or work stations that appeal to the student's learning style, as well as having them work in pairs or groups. But how do you address learning styles at the middle school level, when you have the students for only 40-50 minutes a day? Can we apply the same techniques somewhat modified? I also believe in giving students a choice in assignments. My CT who was a 5th grade teacher had assigned a book report to her class, but with a twist. The book reports could be presented as a news article, a movie poster, an artifact box, etc. She even gave them an option to come up with an idea of their own. Of course she had a rubric they needed to follow and did show them examples. The kids were excited and ran with it. She gave options to appeal to different learning styles and it was amazing with what the students came up with!
It would be nice to have some sort of panacea that could be used to teach every student the same way. Unfortunately, this does not exist. Fortunately, this is because no one is the same. That is what makes school and life so interesting. I do not want to imagine a world where everyone is the same, even if it meant everyone saw the world the same way that I do. That is what is both the amazing thing about being a teacher as well as the hardest thing about being a teacher. There is such wide range of personality, ability, and desire that it makes every class of everyday so interesting.
Through my experience as a substitute teacher I have noticed that I enjoy teaching the middle school grades more so than the elementary grades because of the greater amount of variety of personalities and skill levels that I get to interact with because of the changing of classes every period or two. As a teacher I need to make sure that I am open and willing to help every student out regardless of their preferred learning style or skill set.
It is obviously necessary to assess student performance. What is not necessary is having only one way to assess student performance. Using standardized testing as the sole assessment tool does not do teachers and students justice. Really all those tests do is tell us what student could perform best on that given test on that given day. As an educator I hope to be able to work in an environment that will allow me the flexibility to teach to every student's ability as well as assess each student in a way that is most suitable and comfortable for the given student. I understand that having up to 6 classes a day of 25 or more students may not allow me to do this everyday, but throughout any given school year I hope to be able to somehow come close to doing this. And once I am able to "figure out" each student I plan to collaborate with each given students' future teachers as much as possible to help both the student and future teacher of the student be successful in teaching and learning.
It all comes down to being willing to try anything and everything to eventually reach each student. Without a doubt this will lead to some bumps in the road and some unfortunate failures, but through hard work and perseverance those failures can surely be turned into successes.
I know I have found it very challenging as a teacher who was thrown into the classroom and given little direction. Being at a small school, my classes ran the full gamut as far as who was put into the classroom together. There were most assuredly the students who became part of the wallpaper on the back wall and those whose rear end never really made it down to the seat. It seems to be a idealistic misstep to think that a teacher will have a good “walk” with his/her students daily. There simply have to be the days where your dog doesn’t want to follow along, or nips at the neighbor who didn’t do a thing. Those end up being days of learning and developing too because life is not lived on a “daily success” scale. We have trials, challenges, and even setbacks that are all a part of our development as a person.
The other part of this equation is that we do get to spend every day with these students. For some I realize that it may only be 40 minutes a day, but you would learn a lot about your dogs if you gave them a 40 minute daily walk. And others may have their students for four periods as I had my 6th grade classroom. Short of their immediate family, it was daunting to think that I was the second most present person in their lives. I’m not offering that all my problems were washed away with time spent, but it was a positive weight on the teeter totter of challenges.
A final thought that I had while reading about dogs being walked would be the trials that occur when it isn’t your dog that you are walking. Yes, enter parent X. The one who would like their dog walked this far, on this leash, with this food, and only on these sidewalks. I am simply wondering if some children get more attention or liberties based on the way their parents interact with their educators. Is it our job as a teacher to not let that affect the child’s development, or is it simply part and parcel of the student and person they will become? And why are dogs and children so analogous?
The key to a middle school educator’s success lies primarily in their ability to differentiate instruction. In your article, “The long and the short of it”, you addressed this issue with your dog walking analogy. I do not have dogs, but I have two middle school children. Like your two dogs, my two children are very different; they both have what we might consider their strength and weaknesses, but I love them both equally. Over time I’ve realized that what a school considers to be a strength or weakness is arbitrary. My older daughter is very academically strong, but she is disorganized, impatient, and often socially withdrawn. My younger daughter on the other hand, is the complete opposite. Which child do you think is the more advantaged? My daughters teach me acceptance, and patience. They have made me understand that life is a wonderful gift that we should all enjoy.
It’s hard sometimes to keep patient with my two daughters, and to always have to be understanding of their needs, strengths, and weaknesses. Are they tired or irritable because they never had enough sleep, or because they are hungry, or thirsty? Are they nervous about an upcoming test, or worried that they are losing their best friend, or anxious that their hair is not straight enough? It’s easier to be patient when my life is going is well. It’s easy to be the perfect mother when my family’s health and finances are strong, when I’ve had enough sleep, and when I’m able to keep up with my work. My challenge is when these things are not balanced.
At home, I have two very different children to nurture, and at school I have at least 100. Amongst many of my duties at school, I teach general science to 9th grade students. Since students come to my school from a large number of different middle schools, the purpose of this class is to cover aspects of science that they may have missed in middle school, and to prepare them for future high school science classes. Like taking two very different dogs for a successful walk I have to take 30 very different children on a journey though science. Some students need to branch off and explore by themselves in more detail about a given subject, whereas others need to be told exactly what to do, and exactly what is expected of them. All the while, I have to keep a protective eye on them, and reassure them they are safe.
I don’t think it’s a teacher’s obligation to have a completely successful class every single day, as things invariable do go wrong. In general however, a teacher should learn how to quickly recover when they see things not going according to plan, and to learn by their mistakes. It’s also essential to know when a student needs empathy, and when they need to be disciplined. The degree of how successful I am in tightening and loosening the leach, depends largely on the trust I am able to establish with each student, and with the class as a whole. It’s crucial therefore to build this trust as soon as possible, by setting clear classroom procedures, and expectations.
One of the hardest things I have to do is to leave my personal problems out of classroom. I pray before each class; I ask God for patience, for understanding, and I request His presence during class. It really helps me focus. Even though I am in a room of chattering 9th graders, I take this quiet time before class begins to look at each child, assess individual spirits, and the overall mood of the class, and to appreciate each and every one of them for the energy they bring.
I am in a very privileged position. I am amazed that I get to spend such precious time with these young souls. Gratitude is my personal key to success.
I agree that it will be difficult to address each student's needs day in and day out. I have been in classrooms where it is very difficult because the range of learning styles varies dramatically. I have watched teachers that I have observed in these situations struggle to make sure that each student gets what they need. Often times the teacher fails to reach everyone.
I know from talking to these teachers that it is their main frustration with teaching and even more so when the class sizes keep increasing. I marvel at teachers that can focus on the students that need extra help while still making sure that she is giving her higher level and average students the same amount of attention.
I think that in most cases the students that get the least attention are the kids in the average range. The higher level students tend to take care of themselves because learning comes easy to them. The students with that need more help capture most of the teacher's attention because it takes more work to keep them on task and moving forward. The average students do not require as much attention but may still have questions. But the teacher may be busy with the students that do not get the concepts as all. So naturally the kids in the middle tend to get the least amount of attention and this may cause some of them to begin to struggle.
I remember a time when I was teaching a lesson during my observation of a third grade class. I was teaching math. There were about 5 students in the class that did not get the concepts at all. The rest either got them very easily (higher level) or understood the concepts with a little help from myself and the other teacher (average). However, most of our attention went to the students that did not grasp the concepts. Of course it did! In order for those students to move on to the next concept they had to learn the concept we were working on. It was very difficult to manage even with two teachers in the room and only 22 students! Now imagine that there is only one teacher and 30 students in the class. Even if there is only 5 students that do not understand the concepts it is almost impossible to give attention to all of them and there is no way the teacher is going to be able to interact with all the students in the class.
So how many kids do you think fall through the cracks?
I guess any story nowadays can relate in some way to the art of teaching. The central theme I take out of this story is that just as the dogs looked forward to every time they get to go on walks, students look forward to the opportunity to learn something new and interesting. However, they will never learn or be engaged if the conditions are not adequate for learning.
During my student teaching experience, I tried to relate every single lesson no matter how dry it might have been to something that happened in the modern day world. It was my hope that this would engage the students in the lesson and get them thinking about the impact that social studies content can have on their lives. Most middle school students are now equipped with some kind of technological gadget such as an ipod. While teaching students about the horrors of slavery and factory conditions in our early history, I showed them a video of the factories in China that produce these gadgets and the students were responsive to the lesson. They saw videos of the workers that tried jumping to their deaths only to be caught by fishing nets designed to catch suicide jumpers. This was a lesson in which the students were asking non-stop questions, and I was able to relate every one of those questions back to the lesson and the key concepts. The students enjoyed being in that class because the content was interesting and non-restrictive. It is very similar to the dog being cooperative once they have the right kind of leash.
The leash analogy paints a great picture, and really helps express how different personalities reflect needs and preferences in various ways.
I myself have a routine, even though I don't consider myself a routine-kind-of-guy. After all, I think I need a certain level of routine in order to be able to spend less time on those simple actions and focus more on the bigger-picture goals of each day. At the same time, my most adventurous side emerges when I'm removed from my comfort zone, and it's that adventurous side that, in my opinion, brings out the part of my personality that probably has the most to offer.
Regarding the classroom, I believe every student has that piece of their personality that emerges when s/he is in the right environment. Considering class sizes, as mentioned in the "long and short of it," it's almost impossible to imagine how we as educators can be expected to find each student's varying moods and feelings often enough to reach them on a daily basis.
I oftentimes wonder myself how to best go about connecting with all of the students in my future classrooms and addressing all of their individual needs.
The most important thing I can do as an educator is create a safe environment so that each student can express his/herself among peers and to his/her teacher. My goal from there is to connect with each student, on some level, within the first week (or two?). Moving forward, I will do my best to touch base and pay attention to their verbal and non-verbal cues, on some level, on a daily basis. As long as my students feel safe, and as long as I make myself approachable, I hope to ensure that we all get to see the best they have to offer.
I think this the root of a struggle / ponder I have had and continue to have as a new teacher. I teach high school, so some of the issues are different, but in so many ways we all have and face the same struggles each day. We all have our idiosyncrasies, pet peeves, and straight up faults. But just as much, we all have our amazing thoughts, talents and best of all perspective. It is each and every one of these "pros" and "cons" that makes life interesting.
As a teacher, we must face our self (good and bad) from day to day, while, as you said, also dealing with 30 other peoples' pros and cons. As I started out, the method and techniques for dealing with these students is what I question most. Is it my job to prepare them for the real world, which doesn't care if you like a short leash or a long leash... this is what you get, take it or leave it. Or is it my responsibility to 'nurture' (baby) my students so that they all feel special?
And as for the experience of one student because of the needs of another, I think wholeheartedly it does affect the others in the room, myself included. Now, I am not saying that it is a negative affect, but we all change each other and affect each others lives, no matter how small an impact we may think we have on each other. Think Butterfly Effect.
The problem in my mind is that there is no one solution for all kids on all days, just as the same solution would not work for the same kid everyday. What I think we all seek, or should seek, is a middle ground, how can I keep one on a short leash, while allowing another to explore, and if that's too easy, then how do we do that without the students getting jealous or upset at the unequal treatment?
Reading "The Long and the Short of It" really made smile, as it reminded me of all the pondering I was fortunate enough to do while walking Phil, my doggie, best bud and co-pilot, from 2004 until February of this year. The pain of losing him to lymphoma is one of the great losses of my life, and following his death, one of my great solaces was working with the wide range of kids that all substitute teachers get to.
After pondering Lizzie and Schooner's divergent needs, I thought about Phil through the course of our life together, how he started as an almost insanely rambunctious pup, a little over a year old, pulling on the lead (and me) like a truck towing a trailer, but ended up a very energetic, graceful old man, in no hurry to get anywhere. In the time in between, I taught him not pull, to sit before we crossed the street, not to bark at people with other dogs or shopping carts, and innumerable other things. It occurred to me tonight that this evolution is an apt metaphor (along with the one identified in "The Long and Short of It") for the education of middle school students: what is true one year will not be the next, and that may be true for months, weeks and even days. It is thus very important to take students out for as many walks as possible, to gauge their constantly changing capabilities and learn about ever morphing interests.
As to direct comments on "The Long and the Short of It," I find the metaphor to be completely appropriate and effective. First, I do not find the notion of comparing students to dogs to be offensive as some might, as I find dogs to be the some of the most lovely creatures on Earth, and I would be thrilled to be compared to one. Second, I think the author's tone and point is completely spot on and don't think it is appropriate to define Schooner's needs as dominating Lizzie's, despite his being less adventurous: while Lizzie may like to sniff around more, ultimately, they have the same goal under the same aegis, namely, a walk. To suggest that Lizzie might benefit more without Schooner negates their friendship and what they learn from each other, and presents the straw-man of Lizzie walking free everywhere she wants, not something appropriate for dogs, or children in school. The "Lizzies" in middle schools are there for walks, just like the "Schooners," as are the students who don't fall into this paradigm, and the teacher's job is to get them back to the house before the bell rings, relieved, exercised and ready for all that the world can throw at them.
I enjoyed your metaphor comparing dogs to middle school adolescents. I too am a dog lover and could share many stories of trials and tribulations of caring for pets. The dog in my life right now is a rescue dog from an animal shelter that was with several foster families and apparently suffered long-term abuse. Although I have owned this beagle-basset dog for several years now, I am still trying to figure him out. He can be cooperative and docile one day, and skittish and fearful the next. I am consistently trying new strategies to reassure him that things will be fine.
As a teacher we are expected to learn all about our students and yet it can be very difficult for us to get a handle on their full life experiences and capabilities. Do we know where a student goes to after they leave class or school at the end of the day? Are there other factors in the student’s life that significantly impact his/her learning? In addition to family life concerns, students carry baggage from previous academic classes. Sometimes students feel labeled by teachers, classmates or other parents and are often embarrassed to be themselves.
Student readiness, interest and learning style are all-important elements of the teaching process that have to be considered. A good teacher needs to continually try to look for strategies that help all students in their classroom so that every student can feel comfortable and succeed. Just like my rescue dog I see improvement every day, and yet I realize I need to continue to address his concerns and reassure him on a day-to-day basis so that he can continue to thrive.
I do some of my best thinking when I walk my dog too. Things become more clear when I'm in motion. I have time to ponder the bigger questions. I think of it as moving meditation. I wish it happened as effectively when I run, but that is not nearly as peaceful for me.
We can do our best to know, or better yet, understand our students. If we ask questions and sincerely listen to their answers, we might be surprised by how much we can learn. There will still be mysteries that might bot be unravelled. There will be children who have seemingly impenetrable veneers. We really must try to slowly chip away at those crunchy outer shells to see what's underneath.
We just have to do our best. A teacher once told me that the most important thing to remember that all children are teachable. We can't disregard the potential of any of them.
I'll be student teaching next year in a sixth grade social studies class. As a new teacher, I will probably taking many long walks with my dog in the evenings to regain some of the zen-style clarity of thinking. I'll remind myself of the metaphor of the dogs on different length leashes and levels of comfort with new challenges. I'll remember that I am there to listen to each of my students, learning from them as they learn from me.
Helping students extend outside their comfort zone in a positive way, and still know that they are safe. How do we ensure that we provide an environment conducive to student learning for all students all the time?
What a powerful question. I believe that there key factors that we, as middle level, educators must consider before we even enter the classroom. In my mind the keys to student success are 1-Teachers with strong content knowledge; 2-Teachers who can explain in a variety of ways to appeal to different students, 3-Teachers having the ability to flexibly respond to student questions and needs, and to modify instructional strategies, activities, lessons, etc., to meet the differing needs of your students, and 4-Ensuring that every child regardless of race, ethnic background, sex, color, viewpoint is value by the teacher and classmates. Teachers need to have developed a strong sense of self, have a love for learning & helping children learn, see the positive in every situation, and have the ability to be firm while celebrating student differences.
How do we do this? In order for teachers to provide a safe environment conducive to student success, teachers need to:
1-Determine the curriculum and the big ideas we want our students to analyze and study
2-Decide/determine what knowledge and skills we want our students to acquire.
3-Determine how our students will demonstrate that they have acquired the knowledge and skills that we expect as a result of analyzing and studying the big ideas/essential questions of the unit.
4-Create the formative and summative assessments and rubrics which will guide our teaching and student learning and will help us judge the level of understanding our students have developed.
5-Determine and create the lessons, individual and cooperative learning activities, bell ringers, exit slips, guided & sum-up questions, presentations, class notes, technology-oriented activities, & the use of technology and maniuplatives we will use for each lesson. I'm planning on preparing some new units during the summer. I will not know what class, grade or level I will be teaching so I will design my plans so that they can be adapted once I learn about my students.
6-Develop an in-depth understanding of who our students are, their strengths/weaknesses, special needs, interests, hobbies, career goals, cultural heritage, etc.
7-Instruct and teach with student success and learning as the main goal.
No easy task, but well worth it.
July 1, 2012 9:44 AM
Cary
I enjoyed reading your post regarding Professor Mee’s blog “The long and the short of it.” I too think that respect for the individual learner is important in every classroom. I appreciate your suggestion that all teachers not assume that all students learn the same way and can be taught with the same strategies. It’s easy for teachers to fall into the trap of assuming that every class is the same and that all students in the class learn the information at the same rate and with the same style. As you point out there is also no way to know if every student is not having problems at home or other outside factors preventing him from completing assignments and learning. Finally your last line “Honor their individuality and everyone in the equation will reap the benefits” speaks the truth and comes from your heart.
This questions is something that plagues me to this day. I currently teach a group of students with a wide range of abilities. I have about 5 students who need some extra attention. The rest are able to understand most of what I teach. Do I spend more time with the students who need more help? Do I ignore them? I know that there was a point where these students were ignored.
I have also tried to teach all students the same way. I have found that teaching at a high level for all students and having high expectations helps to raise the level of achievement among all students. Some students know that you are treating them differently. I have tried to treat them all the same, but for the most part, they know what the needs of each other are. In the school I work at many of them have been together since kindergarten. They know each other well and know who needs help. But I do try to make sure that I make an effort to work with all of my students. But I didn't think much about it until I read this. I will have to actively think about how I am interacting with each student. I will work on this next year and see how it goes.
I agree that each student has different needs. Last year I had a group of students with a wide variety of abilities and interests. They really challenged me and challenged my own style. Typically I have tried to teach at a high level with high expectations for all of my students. I found that this may not work. I would have to work with all of my students and help them all out. I had to adjust my teaching style. I am not sure if I was successful in this endeavor. However because of this post I am more aware of the need to work with all of my students as best I can. I will have to continue to work on that. Hopefully it will be something that I can grow in next year and the future years.
This particular post was something that made sense to me. I had just never thought about it this way before. This past year I had students who had a wide variety of skills and abilities. This challenged my style and expectations. In the past, I tried to teach at a high level and hope that all of the students would be able to get something out of what I taught them. This is a style that didn’t work well with a wide variety of students. I had to adjust things. I had to make sure that all of them would be getting something out of the class. I had to be more attentive to the need of all of my students. I didn’t think about this as I was doing it. This post just opened my eyes to what I was doing. I don’t think that I was as successful in the endeavor of teaching all students at their abilities. I will have to redouble my efforts and figure out how I can better reach all of my students in the next school year and in the future.
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