Friday, September 08, 2006
Homework
This is a difficult issue for me. I agree that homework that is based on repitition and redundancy is a waste of time, but at some point, students will have to do something outside of class, some sort of reading, completing assigned work, something, simply because there is not enough time in class to take care of these things.
Alfie Kohn mentions the empty vessel, and today's class has been the perfect example of that. As I was asking students about invention strategies, and all these blank faces were greeting me, even after I told them to open their texts and find the answers, still, empty looks. This attittude, if I wait, he will tell me, is exactly what Alfie Kohn speaks about in his interview with Diane Rehm.
This is a difficult issue for me. I agree that homework that is based on repitition and redundancy is a waste of time, but at some point, students will have to do something outside of class, some sort of reading, completing assigned work, something, simply because there is not enough time in class to take care of these things.
Alfie Kohn mentions the empty vessel, and today's class has been the perfect example of that. As I was asking students about invention strategies, and all these blank faces were greeting me, even after I told them to open their texts and find the answers, still, empty looks. This attittude, if I wait, he will tell me, is exactly what Alfie Kohn speaks about in his interview with Diane Rehm.
Freewriting 005
Okay, something weird going on in the classroom when I assigned FW for 10 minutes. I'm not sure if people were a little frightened because they had been asked to write, or if they hadn't read the chapter, so had no idea what I was talking about, or maybe there's something on my shirt I don't know about, a stain, a sign that says "Kick me!", or maybe something else.
Whatever.
It's Friday, and this was a quick week. I'm teaching a class that is not computer-assisted, and even though I was worried about teaching a class where I did not have the computers as a crutch, I'm really enjoying this class. I feel like I'm getting back to basics as a teacher. Yesterday, we discussed gender roles, raising kids, responsibility, fathers and mothers, and had a really fruitful discussion, an honest discussion. I need to remember to thank everyone who shared, and also explain that if anyone was offended by something someone said, please don't be, or bring it up in class, or to me after class.
Okay, something weird going on in the classroom when I assigned FW for 10 minutes. I'm not sure if people were a little frightened because they had been asked to write, or if they hadn't read the chapter, so had no idea what I was talking about, or maybe there's something on my shirt I don't know about, a stain, a sign that says "Kick me!", or maybe something else.
Whatever.
It's Friday, and this was a quick week. I'm teaching a class that is not computer-assisted, and even though I was worried about teaching a class where I did not have the computers as a crutch, I'm really enjoying this class. I feel like I'm getting back to basics as a teacher. Yesterday, we discussed gender roles, raising kids, responsibility, fathers and mothers, and had a really fruitful discussion, an honest discussion. I need to remember to thank everyone who shared, and also explain that if anyone was offended by something someone said, please don't be, or bring it up in class, or to me after class.
