Week 11 Reflection

Last Monday was the first time I hosted a twitter season and I wanted to make sure that the questions were simple, but not so simple that people were getting bored. When you are the person leading the session, it can be hard to tell how well it is going. I feel like it went pretty good hopefully this Monday will also go well. It can be challenging to not repeat the same questions as last week when it is the same topic.

Josie commented on my blog and we talked about how we are both teaching our units in a nontraditional setting. We both find it hard to pace the unit when there are not school time frames already in place. Gerald and I had a conversation about how teaching just one student can be challenging because there are no other students doing the same work to model how the learning could be happening. He also gave me some useful advice I want to try. The child I am working with L, is very active and needs movement. He suggested that I try having music on while she is working. I will ask her what she thinks and maybe try it the next time we get together.

I commented on Jim’s blog and talked about how time management is also really hard for me. The balance of how hard to push students to finish something, while still making sure that they are learning the information is a struggle that I have. I posted on Kendra’s blog and talked about how I have never had to deal with trying to get students to turn things in on time. She changed how she has dealt with assignments in the past and said that they will not be excepted if they are late. I look forward to seeing how that works for her and if anything changes. I also commented on Josie’s blog. I said that I would have enjoyed learning this unit that she is teaching. I also talked about how everyone works at a different rate and the struggle of the teacher to keep that in mind when planning a unit.

This week I realized that I need to keep working on timing and it is something a lot of people struggle with. I also thought a lot about the difference between teaching in a traditional classroom and what it is like to teach one child outside of a classroom. The idea of school already has a strong context to it, that when you are there you are learning. This is not the same when working on something at home. This week I am going to try to get L in the learning mind set by asking her about what she remembers from the last time we worked together.