Have you ever stopped one day to reflect on how you do something and realized that you aren't doing whatever it is at all the way you know you should? I had one of those experiences this week. I was taking one of those crazy online surveys that make you analyze yourself. I started off feeling great because I "knew all the answers" and then about halfway through the quiz I realized that most of the concepts I believe in regarding my job and my personality are things that I have given up on in the past few years.
I could blame it on any number of things...workwise; constantly changing standards and expectations, making excuses, lower expectations from others than what I have myself. Personality wise; having children, working with daily negativity, not feeling supported.
The truth is though that I have allowed myself to slip away from the very things that make my job fun. I strongly believe in students taking an active role in their own assignments and assessments, yet not once this year have I required my students to develop a project in class or assess theirselves. I almost always do rubrics where I grade on one and the students grade on another and then we discuss the differences. I have learned more about how my students learn in the past week because of listening to them than I have all year and we have five weeks left.
I let my style become dictated by teaching to a test and in that I quit being creative. Now that I realize it, I have to fix it. I have to become in practice the person my ideology knows is true me.
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