Students are actually requesting new blog posts!
This illustrates my greatest strength, as well as the largest obstacle of my teaching career. I excel at building positive, encouraging relationships with my students. Even students who do not do well in my classes will often come to me for support, even after they have moved on; some even after they have graduated high school.
My students this year have become so comfortable with me that they have set aside the proper classroom decorum of respect for teacher and learning environment in favor of a casual environment that often distracts from the appointed topic. Although I have turned all of the desks to be forward-facing, I have been trying to continue with the boys separate from girls experiment. Changes need to take place however. The learning environment is more important than the experiment.
I’m not saying the experiment is unsuccessful. In fact, the separation has proven valuable, but I am beginning to think that the key to keeping students engaged is to keep them distracted. Regular change is the theme of the day.
