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100 Days Project – Day 2 – Friendship!

September 7th, 2011 · No Comments · 100 Days Project, Teaching & Learning

100 Days Project – Day 2 – 9:15 a.m.

I hesitated for several weeks while I thought about whether I should pursue this project; time, busy live, family, time, homework to read, time – well you get the idea.  Already this morning, although I’m working at home for a couple of hours, I’ve had to help students over email, and Blackboard, make some phone calls, and organize my briefcase.

But I know that when I want to achieve a goal, I figure it out – I do accomplish a terminal degree while working full time after all!

Yesterday’s first day of classes was exhilarating (and exhausting)!   I’m part of a Learning Community that requires the same set of students to enroll in Survey in Health Careers taught by a colleague, and my class called College Success.  I sit in on that class, we have a 15-minute break, and then I lead my class.   It was different yesterday to get to know the students while watching them in a class before mine – very interesting.  Then I teach two Education classes between 11 and 4 – one of which is a 2-hour class.  So I was really done in by the time I got home.  But the thrill really is there!  Trying to learn almost 90 students’ names, beginning to see the quirks of their learning, noticing who already has 20 questions, who hasn’t spoken yet, and what I’ll do in tomorrow’s class to encourage them to participate.

A great moment happened when I was explaining how the reading works in one of my courses:  I’ve had great luck giving the students half of the semester to do the reading in their own way.    They submit a plan, have to respond in writing to each chapter or article, but they attack it in any order that appeals to them.  That can be a bit of a surprise, and they often spend several moments, if not half an hour, asking questions and trying to grasp the idea that a teacher has given them control over what to read and when.  In the confusion that my repeated replies were not clearing up for at least 4 students; a student raised her hand and said, “May I try to explain?”  Indeed, yes.  She stood up, and slowly explained the process (quite accurately); everyone, not just the four who had been lost, let out an audible “Oh!”   Thank you, thank you, I said!   To me that is so much a part of learning for my students – I especially treasure the times when they help each other on the journey.  That was a good moment on the first day of classes!

And, today my granddaughter went off to her first day of Kindergarten!  I hear already that helping others (which seems part of her developing nature) helped her enter the classroom.

Today I’m thinking about the value of students’ supporting each other’s learning – here’s to friendship in the classroom!

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