Friday, March 11, 2011

Counterbalance

As you may have gathered, Wednesday was Not A Good Day. On Thursday, I was still irritated with the kids on my way to school, so I decided I wanted to do something to cheer myself up a little. 2-3 days a week the kids do an exit slip at the end of class. It is a good way for me to get instant feedback on whether or not the kids understand a concept and is a great way to end class without the kids packing up ten minutes early (punks).

On Thursday, since I had been feeling like the world's worst teacher (THANKS, KIDS) I asked the kids to tell me something they had learned in my class this year that they thought had made them a better student. Really, I was looking for a little pat on the back. And it worked.

I did, of course, get the requisite idiot answers (some prime examples....'nothing,' 'WWI was bad,' and my personal favorite... '1.'), but most of the kids actually gave me some good stuff. Here are some of my favorites (written verbatim):
  • I have learned to take good notes
  • Something I've learned this year is pick the best details to prove my writing, because it wasn't something I am good at before.
  • pointing out better details because these skills are going to be used for many more things in life
  • Something that I have learned is how to explain my thoughts
  • That I have to give a better deatails. So if I pick a quote, I have to give a good deatail
  • The essay thing helps me in other classes too =)
  • homework has made me a better student because I start doing a lot more homework and encourage me to want to learn more
  • Something that I have learned in world history this year that I feel makes me a better student is the way we take notes. It's really helpful and organizing.
  • Thinking about things at a deeper level
  • how to make a good thesis. I will use it several times
  • Finding specific evidence because I be getting unrelated evidence that doesn't go what we're talking. Now it really helped me, like the elimination thing (**teaching kids to eliminate the obviously wrong answers)
  • how to find good evidence because I used this everywhere in other classes, not only just one
  • be confident by myself because I feel better than before (from an ELL student)
I recommend this treatment for all burned-out teachers. =)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You go, girl! Though I'm still on ice cream standby...mostly because I just want to eat ice cream... ;-)