EDSE 500 Video Self-Observation & The End of Summer As We Know It

Yesterday I recorded myself teaching on video. It was only a review lesson with a very straightforward plan: Go over the questions from our last test. Honestly I do believe there is a lot of value in reviewing test or assignment questions students have already seen, because just getting the students to think about the work is half the battle. Taking a test is a good way to make sure everyone at least gave it a try. It might seem sort of dull to think of teaching this way, but every test opens a door to learning. Reviewing the test afterward is a good way to make sure everything is in order. Although the students were not exactly entertained by my teaching style, I feel somewhat justified in my approach, because they did significantly better on the final exam than they did for the test which I reviewed so meticulously with them.

I misplaced my cold-calling cards the other day, so my student participation largely relied on volunteers. Unfortunately, that meant only a few students were actively participating as much as I would like. Other than that, I was actually fairly pleased with what I saw of myself on videotape. I think my class time utilization was very down-to-business, patient, and thorough. I was fair and consistent with my classroom discipline. I questioned students well. I kept a calm and polite but very no-nonsense, businesslike teaching persona. All of those things come fairly natural for me at this point, and I am satisfied with all of these characteristics.

It never occurred to me before, but upon watching myself on film, I realized that my teaching style is very similar to my dad. Not to be complacent, but actually I feel pretty okay with that. I took two quarters of business law from my dad in college, and I definitely consider him at least in the 80th percentile as far as teachers. Nothing flashy, just honest, well-organized, high expectations, and no bull$#@! One could do worse. I think I am one of those teachers who runs a classroom where the students probably learn a lot (if they want?) but might often resent it at the time, because I give a lot of homework and rules and do not particularly razzle-dazzle entertain them every period like Moda might. But more on being liked or not liked later.

Speaking of Moda, my usual second-years were gone yesterday, so I was evaluated by another second-year who is not usually in my class or even in the same subject. He praised most of the same things I liked about my teaching. He wrote “great teacher presence” on top, “lots of participation,” and “fairly good student behavior — they’re just bored from not writing anything.” Fair enough, that last part. He especially liked my “mini-lesson / review” of how you subtract the exponents when dividing common variables. On the other hand, he had a number of quibbles with our classroom procedures that were not completely in my hands to begin with, and he also noticed some note-passing that slipped past me.

After I had watched the video of myself and set it up for the teacher who needed it after me, I returned to my own classroom. It was the last period of the day, and students were starting to finish their exams, which they had begun writing the period before. Dewey Boy had been in charge, and students were constantly getting out of their seats, often several at a time, casually shuffling around to hand in their exams and pick up a survey to complete. In my opinion, this is totally unacceptable for a testing (or really any independent work) environment. After a few minutes of it, I had become uncomfortable enough that I took it upon myself to change the procedure mid-stream. I started to tell the kids to stay in their seats and raise their hands if they were finished. Just as I was doing so, a couple boys in the back row started to get up. Unfortunately, I snapped at them. For the first time all month, I raised my voice, “Sit down!”

Well of course my least proud moment of summer school happened to come at the same time we handed out surveys. A solid third of the class wrote very harsh things toward me personally. One wrote “in other word just quite Mr. A” and another one wrote “Mr. A – Terrible” under an ugly face! Of course it bothers me.

This is not the first time I have won an unpopularity contest as a teacher. At the beginning of my second year of teaching in Namibia, the ninth-graders whom I had taught the year before groaned loudly and conspicuously when it was announced that I would be teaching ninth-grade math that year. No one did that for any of the other teachers. But things were different then. As I wrote already, I spent that first year actually resenting the students, which is not at all true now. I just wish the students could understand that asking a lot of them and being uncompromising comes from a sense of responsibility and caring, not at all from anger or hatred.

At the end of the period yesterday, “Tad” asked me if I had something against him. I assured him no, and indeed I quite liked him. He said he and I had a problem all summer long. He asked why I gotta be so strict. I explained to him that every teacher is different, and I have my rules the way I do because I want everyone in the class to be able to concentrate. If I allow students to move around and make noise as much as they want, other students will not be able to concentrate. To my surprise, Tad seemed to accept my reasoning fairly well. A couple minutes later, I came back to apologize to Tad for yelling at him to sit down earlier. I explained that I did not mean to yell, but that it just slipped out as he stood up while I was starting to talk. After our talk, Tad seemed to feel more okay with me, and we even bumped fists, together with Dewey Boy, outside after school.

On a related note, a girl whom I had sent to the office a day or two before for challenging me and swearing in class, came to me after dismissal and apologized. On Wednesday, the day after the discipline incident, I had praised her neat work on a calendar project we were doing in class. Her partner, one of our more rowdy boys, caught onto my praise and bumped fists with her. I seconded by offering my own fist to bump. She seemed touched, said “Ahh!” and gave me a shy fist.

Today, we were all done with our tests and everything, so we basically just played games all day. Dewey Boy spent the first period trying to teach them a couple team building games, but we had to leave the hallways after other teachers began to complain about our noise. During the next three periods, I taught five boys in the class how to play Settlers of Catan, which is my favorite board game. I was actually surprised how well the game went over. Most of the boys who came over to see the game got interested in it. They learned it fairly quickly. And those who played really seemed to “get it” and enjoy the game. Behavior was pretty good. They helped me put the game away pretty nicely at the end, and I only had to tell them once not to grab cards or roll the dice too soon when they got over-eager. Overall, I was pleased to end the summer school on a good note. And Settlers of Catan is a lot more mathematical than most games, disguised under a lot of fun as it may be. At the end of the day, I made a point to shake hands with each student as I dismissed them.