1st Semester of Teaching Pre-Service Teachers [check]

Out of a total 22 students, last semester I had 18 respond to the final course evaluation, overall not a bad participation rate (82%).  Here is a short summary of their responses: I would rate the quality of this course (W200) as outstanding (3.7/5) and this instructor as outstanding (4.0/5).  My instructor provided a learning structure that helped me to mentally organize new knowledge and skills (3.9/5) and I had opportunities in this course to explore how I could personally use what I have learned (4.3/5). Then, in this course (W200), my instructor expected me to do authentic tasks (4.3/5).

When students were asked about what worked well in the course and what aspects of the instructor’s teaching approach should not be changed, students responded: 1) “Najia is an absolute gem of a teacher. She is patient and available to her students. On more than one occasion, I sent her an email and she responded within half an hour. While a very demanding teacher she was never unreasonable in what she asked us to do. Her critiques of class preps are very thoughtful and well articulated. So lucky to have had her as a teacher. Whatever she is being paid is not enough. Would not change a thing about her teaching style.”; 2) “I really appreciated the feedback on my projects and how efficient the grading was done. I was also always able to get my questions answered in a short period of time through email which I also enjoyed.”; 3) “I liked that we were introduced to a variety of useful tech resources that we can use later.”; 4) “All of the assignments and projects were very relevant for the future classroom and I learned so much. I love Canvas, it is a very simple and organized tool for grades.”; and 5) in improvements, “When Najia changed the way things were due to a more consistent schedule it helped to ease the confusion and timeliness of the projects.” Based all the responses I believe that I have to clearly communicate my expectations to my students and provide them with structure in time, grading, and classroom management.

When students were asked what I could do to improve the course or my teaching effectiveness, they responded with: 1) “Add something other than lecturing and Powerpoint”; 2) “I enjoyed this instructor and how they taught.”; 3) “Keep having things due at a consistent time. Also, allow more time to ask questions or do things in class. This would help and cut down a lot of stress tremendously.”; and 4) “Space projects out more so that students can get caught up and are able to breathe in this class.” Again the theme of structuring assignments and allow students time to work on projects in class is vital to success.  In the future I plan to improve this aspect of my class by allowing more space/time for students to complete lab style work in class.

For access to the full report

3 Weeks & they still won’t speak

It is 8am and the students are still trying to wake up. Teaching a 3 hour lab first thing in the morning perhaps is not the best for my morale. I think I will have to try extra hard to engage my students in more conversation. When I first started to teach I was taught to sing “Ba Ba Black Sheep” at least once before I moved on from wait time. By then someone had answered, or made a comment…perhaps because in that minute they has a spark of brilliance, but more often than not my awkward silence and staring had gotten to them.
Feel like I am moving past content without giving the students enough time to engage in whole class discussion. So I am changing my strategy a bit. Maybe at 8am they don’t want to leave their sleep induced state to speak a loud in class. My shift has been to create groups of discussion instead. I discovered if I ask them to turn to a neighbor there tends to be at least one or two students who manage to slip through without a partner.
These groups are assigned by me. Well sort of, I point and say ‘you all, can be one group’ so if a student doesn’t really want to work with said person they can slip away. Another change is making someone in the group a scribe and another the speaker. That way they know their group will be accountable for conveying findings and examples to the rest of the class.
I think the down side to forcing group discussions is losing some of the personal experiences shared to generalizations. Right now I am not really sure if that is a really bad thing, or just part of the process. So in an effort to make sure different students are leading the conversations, I am assigning them different roles such as scribe or presenter, insisting that the students take on different tasks each week.
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