reading for this week

Just wondering what everyone else read on the link from the assignment page. i looked at it but it had 12 pages of links to blogs. I couldn’t find the teacher and students working together one. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

“known it all” and “Teachers pet”

I always hated those term because I don’t have a teachers pet. I, of course, have students that I will trust more than others, but as to say they are my “pet”, I feel like that is implying I like that student(s) more than the others and that just isn’t so in my case ( I can’t stand any of them, lol). No, but really, I like all my students, I just don’t want to have to teach some of them math, but out in the halls or out of school I don’t mind one bit to talk to them.

Ok, now for the subject at hand, “know it all”, these students are the ones that you call on when no one else knows the answer, they are the ones that show the other students that it is obtainable to learn, and they are the ones that all the other students verbally bash and secretly admire. These are the students that keep you on your toes and correct you when needed and keep you on the task at hand when you get off subject too long (at least some of mine do). I don’t have a know it all in every class due to the type of classes I am teaching and I feel that the classes with a know it all seem to be better organized and have more student participation. I am unsure why, maybe the other students are silently competing to see if they can answer the questions correctly more than the “know it all”. My one class with out a know it all is hard to ask questions with because when you get to a hard one, you don’t know who to ask because it requires the deeper understanding to answer it and no one is there to do it. So I feel the “know it all” is there to give you as the teacher a challenge and the students a challenge to keep them at the higher order thinking. I hate asking a questions that you know no one in the class knows. (by the way I usually end up answering it myself after several wrong answers are shouted out). ” Know it all “students facilitate the high thinking questions, in turn help to make the class a higher learning class.

Now on to “teachers pet”, even thought I don’t have a single person per say, I do have student that I trust to sent somewhere without getting into any trouble. I don’t know their purpose of a teachers pet in a classroom, but it must have something to do with class discipline since I have the worst disciplined classes in the schools. (I go to more than one school that is why it is plural). I used to think that it was the students, but now I feel that it is me. Maybe the teachers pet helps with the class discipline because they like you and want the other students to act appropriately thus helping out the climate of the classroom. I am unsure, and again since I don’t have one I really don’t know. I do want to point out that I have had one student in the past 5 years of teaching that I might of called my pet, but I don’t think the student realized it because I try to treat them all equitably. Help on the “teachers pet” would be nice.
Do all teachers have a pet?? Maybe I do and don’t know it, but I can’t think of any students I like more than any other. Please feel free to comment on this because now I feel like a bad teacher not connecting with their students. I guess the students would tell me if I asked. huh!

A students role

I have been thinking about the questions posted on blackboard and have come up with some answers that I hope you will all help me out with. I want to start off by saying that I am a back row person who usually sits in the front row in a classroom. I want to blend in and not have to participate much, but don’t want the lousy grades usually associated with the back of the room. (on a side note, I always sit by the door in a actually classroom so that I can be to my seat quickly because I am usually late, plus I’m the first one out the door too) Now, classes on the internet don’t have a back row, thus everything that I do is noticed no matter where I sit or what I do (or don’t do, in my case usually). So, my answer to the dynamics of a front row, back row person is that you have to be a front row person when you are online otherwise your not going to know what you are doing and will be totally lost. Catching up with an online course is a lot harder to do than in a classroom where a “know it all” student can just tell you what you missed and your caught up. I feel that the dynamics of an online classroom are more on a one to one basis. The teacher usually talks with you specifically when you have a problem or need help. This is different than in a classroom because you are able to ask questions without the other students knowing that you are “stupid” (to use the students terms) and don’t know something.

The students role in a classroom as well as online is more than just a student. Students are also to facilitate learning by asking questions, starting and maintaining discussions, and participating in those discussions. When I read this I immediately thought of a class I had once where no one would talk. You would ask a question and wait and eventually the one student that got tired of waiting, for someone else to respond would raise their hand. If their is no discussion between students or class, then the learning is hindered because they aren’t asking the questions they need to know. This means they are learning the content that you provide by aren’t elaborating to get the depth of knowledge that leads to learning.