Adam - Reading Notes #8

TT

I don’t know if there’s anything in this chapter I will use. Rare problems are handled (or ignored) on a case-by-case basis. I feel like planning for them is not a productive endeavor as they each demand unique responses.

OC

“Talking about teaching with your colleagues can be wonderful, but nothing beats sitting in on someone else’s classroom and seeing how they conduct class.” (248) Discussions with teaching peers are absolutely necessary. Watching your peers teach is great as well, but I find it less valuable. What have I been doing as a student all these years if not, ‘sitting in on someone else’s classroom and seeing how they conduct class?’

Chapter 11 motivated me to write up an assignment, so that was my takeaway from this section of the book.

I like the idea of assigning a small amount of course-related work to cell-phone abusers. (254) Strangely, phones disrupt me more as a student than as a teacher.

LCT

This paper sounds like the cafeteria-style idea from last week’s TT.

“21 percent of students engage in some form of resistance.” Perhaps that means 79% are satisfied with the status quo. It would be great if students took charge of their own learning, but that’s a lot of work… work that teachers are paid for.

 “They actually prefer teacher-centered classrooms, but not for reasons that benefit their learning.” Absolutely, that doesn’t surprise me one bit. It’s exactly how I feel as a student. Making decisions is a burden and a responsibility.

“Most students are years, if not decades, away from having the skills and intellectual maturity necessary to assume responsibility for their own learning.” This would seem to argue against the premise of the paper.

Still, ways to give students more choice should definitely be a discussion topic. I’ve experimented with allowing students to move grading weights from one assignment to another.