Reflection#8

Reflection #8 March 10-14 This is week two of the essay-writing lesson and my students still have doubts about the body paragraph. This week Mrs. Iralys and I decided to switch classes. I observed how she taught to my group and I applied what I absorbed from her to her group. This was actually very helpful. I was able to learn a lot from her and it helped me fill up the gaps I was missing teaching this lesson. Another thing that happened this week was that on Friday I gave a quiz on the novel “The Indian in the Cupboard” but before that I discussed last week’s quiz where most of my students did not do so well.

When I started discussing it they realized that the questions that I was giving them were not even analysis questions; they were all reading comprehension questions they can easily answer if they would just sit down and read. However, I had a student that really made me angry about a comment that she said. She raised her hand and asked me if I was giving quizzes so that they would flunk on purpose. I had to count to five before answering because all I kept thinking was “really? I’m flunking you on purpose?” After gathering my thoughts I answered as best I could, always keeping in mind that there is a fine line between making your point and being disrespectful. I said that I was not flunking them on purpose. I told all of them that the only people that can change their grades are themselves; that my job as a teacher was to teach them and guide them but that it was their jobs as students to study and do their work. That it was not my fault that they were not getting good grades but theirs. After that I passed down the new quiz and wished them luck. I sat down with Mrs. Iralys and she told me that I did good in letting them know that its not the teacher’s job to give good grades. She kept explaining how one of the problems high school teachers face is that students think they deserve good grades just because. That is why the level of difficulty in the secondary level is quite big. Teachers do not let their students have “free time”; they are constantly working and constantly demanding them to do their best. Still, I thought her comment was disrespectful. I wonder if the rest of the students in this school actually believe that it’s the teachers who flunk their students and not the fact that they are not doing their work. If this is the case, I hope I can get a job here just so that I can change this mindset in students. When I was in school, if I got a bad grade I knew it was because of me and my parents would be mad at me not the teacher or the school but today’s society has changed and not for the better. Maybe the real problem is not the students; maybe this is the mindset their parents have. After all children are a reflection of their parents. I think it’s the parents that need to go back to school.