Week Two Reflection

Week Two Reflection So, this week I had the honor of watching how a teacher layers her units. I feel this teacher uses time wisely, in this sense. It seems to come from a combination of what is stated daily/weekly on the board and constant communication with students about these ongoing assignments. This class is student-driven, so they are learning the crucial skill of self-regulation at an early age, it seems to me. She is always there to answer questions, reinforce points, and manage students' behavior. But so much is left to them to decide how to manage their time with each assignment. The groups vary, obviously. Her two higher levels groups do better with this. All the groups work hard and respect her. The Socratic Seminar was fascinating. They love to argue at this age, so they are being given reminders to say I agree with . . . (the idea, not the name)or I disagree with . . .so that it does not become personal. Some students are clearly more argumentative than others. My overall feeling about the exercise and her students is that they are working very well at critical thinking. I kept resisting the urge to jump in and say "this event in history (Greensboro Sit-In)is like so many in that it was a perfect storm" and by this I mean the events and people converged at the exact right moment to change things. They want to play the "what ifs" until they are exhausted. I'm glad I resist because I realize they need to do this, it's higher order thinking! I was glad to get the opportunity to proofread students papers-"Text to Talk-Greensboro", since it gave me a chance correct and give suggestions that were clear and I spoke with each student as I went. There will be so many times in my teaching career where I won't be able to talk directly as I proof, so I took full advantage of it and didn't rush.