Sunday, March 12, 2017

This first week of class has been one that I am thankful I never have to repeat.  I spent many evenings last week working into the wee hours of the morning, trying to find the right words to say exactly what I wanted to express.  I have learned many important lessons this week.
Lesson 1: I have lost my skill of procrastination. 
Through my college days, I spent every moment I could outside of the dorm. I was heavily involved in the fine arts department. I played sports, and spent hours laughing and joking with my group of friends.  My friends and I even got into roller blading, and we would spend hours blading all over the beautiful city of Owatonna, Minnesota.  I would come screeching into the dorm at the last possible second, and proceed to sit down and start my homework while most people were heading to bed.  It made my roommate, parents, and even myself at times, cringe over the extra stress I constantly placed on myself.  However, I was one of those students that managed to put it off until the last minute and still do well.  In fact, I managed to graduate with honors.  NOT.  ANY.  MORE. My brain became mush and my fingers stopped working.  At 11:57pm when everything was due, I was frantically yelling at my computer for freezing. It was ugly. 
Lesson 2: Being a student is hard work.
I have gained an entirely new appreciation for the amount of work that the students complete in order to stay on top of their grades.  There were times this week that I thought my professor had gone crazy.  Several papers, blog posts, critical thinking discussion posts, curriculum project were just a few of the things I needed to do. It was hard juggling and managing each paper, which edit I had just finished, and which item had been turned in.  
Lesson 3: It is ok to push my students. 
While I was stressed and definitely overwhelmed this week,  there was this amazing feeling of accomplishment.  I had done a lot of work, and I had done a lot of it really well.  Part of that was due to excellent feedback from our professor who answered questions, offered support, and gave praise when it was due.  I want to push my students, but offer that same level of support and adulation at the same time.  My students work hard and produce amazing things.   

I came across this article from the Washington Post this week.  A teacher had gone undercover as a student for two days and  followed the exact schedule that was expected of the teens.  After two days, the teacher's eyes were opened, and many changes began to occur in the classroom. This article was a great challenge to me to continue evaluating what I do to make sure everything serves a purpose. 

3 comments:

  1. My problem is I still have my skill of procrastination, but not the skill to pull it off well! Hopefully your students can appreciate that you are walking a student's path along with them in these next few months.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, Courtney! Great insights. Thank for sharing that article. It definitely opened my eyes as well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great lessons learned! The accompanying article was an appropriate eye-opener as well. I am sure that your students are going to benefit greatly from your return to the world of academia. :)

    ReplyDelete