Perceptions

In the article “Perspectives” I really related to the teacher June who while aware of issues and willing to put effort and time into her teaching still falls into the patterns that can be discouraging to students like Maria. In both my tutoring and teaching, which I’ve just begun doing again for the first time since beginning to actually study teaching/instruction, I keep worrying about how and what I’m communicating to students. Is that feedback clear? helpful? Is how I phrased the assignment understandable? Is it enough or too much information? Is how I presented the discussion what has led to being stared at by 30 people in silence?

Doing both the tutoring, one-on-one, and teaching has provided an interesting contrast for me as well. When teaching I want the connection and focus I get when working with students individually but can’t have because there are 30 and I’m the teacher. At the same time I want to be able to talk to them more as more of “an ‘equal’ participant” during discussions and recognize and give time to their own ideas when they speak up in class. I try to use small group work so they can kind of get that from each other but it seems they aren’t used to it or aren’t sure how to go about it. Which leads to me stumbling around trying to model or restructure it for next time.

The article about mutt genres spoke to me about the other main concern I’ve had teaching, which is what should I assign. What kind of papers will help them develop useful skills and how do I phrase the assignments so it’s clear. I based my class of fairy tales, which I do see as something relevant and connecting well to writing, but I worry it is too limiting and that even if they write a lot and are interested in it is it going to help them later on? How do I make sure that the skills and knowledge it can provide gets to students?

I enjoyed both articles and reading through the arguments and problems definitely helped me better understand the issues I am just beginning to face and the conversations going on about them, but I still have no better ideas for how to deal with them.

Laura