Thursday, December 29, 2011
Post-Winter Break
I'm hoping to renew some of my enthusiasm from early in the year. Coming back from an extended break might give a renewed sense of openness to accepting others among the students. We ended the year with some negativity towards forced group work. Maybe a lot of these thoughts come from my perceptions of the problems. If I simply focused on the groups successfully accomplishing tasks, working together well, and overall having a good time (which is probably the majority) I would think positively about the whole idea. I guess it's hard to maintain a positive outlook when you start the year feeling a new idea will solve every issue and dilemma ever seen in the classroom. Basically I need to step back during our second semester and focus on the positives.
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I think sometimes we expect students to react how we hope they react to situations, but that isn't always the case. When that happens, we cannot view it as a failed attempt at something, but rather look at all the positives that came from it, which you talked about trying to do in this new year. I think you have the right attitude and I hope it goes well. Do you ever ask the students how they feel the group work has been? You might be surprised about their thoughts.
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