Chapter 7- Stephanie Baldwin

Chapter 7 Blog

Creative Connector:

In this chapter the author asks his students to evaluate his lessons in the middle of a unit.  The feedback he receives is surprising to him, especially since his students are so open and honest.  At the end of my student teaching experience I had students write evaluations of how they thought I did as a teacher.  Most feedback was positive, except for my Level 4 class.  They were harsh.  I was surprised by this because no one really gave any sign of being that dissatisfied with my lessons.  I wish I had known before so I could have fixed my mistakes.

A lot of this chapter deals with the author's first impressions of students and how they proved him wrong.  I think we all have probably had this experience.  When I first started student teaching I had this one student who tried his very hardest to get under my skin.  He quite often acted like a brat when he didn't get his way.  But after a while he let down his wall and actually started to like me.  I was then able to see the real person he was and he actually became one of my favorite students.  

Rigorous Researcher:

I find it really important to build good relationships with students, so I found some how-to sites on how to do so.

http://tep.uoregon.edu/workshops/teachertraining/beginnings/onlinebeginnings/relationship.html

http://www.priceless-teaching-strategies.com/teacher_student_relationships.html

http://www.howtodothings.com/education/how-to-earn-your-students-respect (Ignore all the links at the top of the page, the content is actually useful)

http://www.ehow.com/how_5060463_earn-respect-high-school-students.html

Essence Extractor:

There needs to be respect and understanding between teachers and students.