Session Two:
Do you know your teenage students?
Socrates (469–399 B.C.) said:
"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. "
Sound familiar? Do you know your teenage students? It is important that you do!!!
Getting to know your students
How well do you know your students? You may have many students in your classrooms. Do you know what they like and dislike? Do you know what their hobbies are? Are they artistic? Are they musical? Are your bouncy kids into drama? computers? Do they hate school? Are they fighting with their friends?
Just like adults, teens have good days and bad days. Empathy on our part will help our students be more open to learning. That also means flexibility.
TIPS:
- Always have a fun word-search or card game that a student can play if they are not able to focus on the lesson.
- Allow students to work in pairs which takes pressure off individual work if someone is having a bad day.
- See your students, each and every one of them. Quietly ask if they need anything.
- Allow choice during a lesson, sometimes a student just may not feel like writing a composition or doing a reading comprehension. Maybe they would prefer reading their book or doing a puzzle.
Watch this TED Talk:
Task ONE: Read at least TWO of these articles about Student Observation:
Task Two:
A. Search in Google : "student engagement observation tool"
Read at least 3-4 different forms.
Do you like any of them? What do you like/dislike?
How could you use them in your classroom to get to know your students better?
B. Post the URL of a form which you found interesting on this GoogleForm.
C. Go into this Google Spreadsheet to see the URLs people have shared. Check out at least one of the other URLs
(Click on the tab on the bottom marked Session 2)
Task Three:
Choose ONE summative task for this session: A or B below
Find the slide with your name, and paste your work there.
OPTION A
A. Create 2 different 5-10 minute activities to get to know your students better.
You can use post its, technology (apps), drama or anything else you can think of.
B. Go to this Googleslide presentation:
- Write your name and school at the top of the slide
- Write your ideas on the slide
- Read through the other slides
- Add a third idea to your own slide from someone else's (give them credit of course)
OPTION B
A. Create an observation form to use when observing your students.
What kinds of guiding questions for yourself would you ask? How could this change your teaching practices?
B. Go to this Googleslide presentation:
- Write your name and school at the top of the slide
- Write your guiding questions/ or share your form on the slide
- Read through the other slides
- Add another question to your own slide from someone else's (give them credit of course)
TIP for Session Two
At the beginning of the year, I focus on the idea of everyone being unique. On the first day of school, we get in a circle on the reading carpet. I begin by saying that I am going to say something about myself that is unique or something that is special and no one else in the room shares that quality with me (I tell them that it is ok if some people have the same ideas, but that we want to try to find ideas that make us different). I tell them that unique is another word for different. I ask them, what do you think about when you hear the word different? Often, they name things with a negative connotation. I tell them that I like the word unique, because it means the same thing, but that negative connotation hasn't ruined the word.
I grab a ball of yarn and I tell them one thing I think is unique about me. I will say, "I competed in a tennis tournament this summer and won the whole tournament!" I will then hold my end of the ball and throw the ball to someone else in the circle. That person will say something unique, hold a part of the string and throw the ball to another person. By the time the ball of yarn has made its way around the circle, everyone will be holding a part and it will look like a web. When we finish, I will ask the kids, "What did we make?" They will of course say that we made a web. I will then ask them to tell me about the web. Through discussion, I will eventually have them discover that, even though we are all unique and special, we are all connected to each other like a web, because we are a class.
