What Kind Of Teacher Is He?

It is interesting how things work. Yesterday, I wrote about my willingness to raise grades by half a letter if I can get the students to pay attention. I indicated that I think it is working, and I do believe that. I also made the students sit through “The Lecture,” which can be one of the most annoying things. I used to hate when my parents would lecture me. Still, I think I made some effective points that the class seemed to understand.

One belief which I shared with my class was, if a student came up to them and asked what kind of teacher I was, they would not be able to answer. “You might be able to see he is an easy grader, or a hard grader. You might be able to say, ‘He let’s us talk,’ but when it comes to my teaching style, you have no idea what it is.” I actually thought that got through to them and made the point I wanted to make.

The proof will be in how they respond for the rest of the semester. It is still too early to tell. In addition, right now, we are in the middle of Demonstration speeches. Still, just gauging things by the lack of talking and side conversations going on during student speeches, things are much better. I actually have little patience for side conversations during student speeches.

It is interesting, with the informative speech, I told them I took off for talking during the speeches, I told them I did not want them engaging in a dialogue with the speaker, unless the speaker was asking a question. Still, they did not get it. Right now, they seem to be understanding what I want. I hope it stays that way.