Time and Patience

The most important aspect of this week was learning a new level of patience with the students and giving them extra time to turn in their work. Since I began this placement, I've always thought that my co-op affords the students too much time and too many opportunities to complete their work. This week was the end of the third quarter and grades need to be in shortly. I had put together a spreadsheet on the class work that the students should have completed with their grades on it and handed these out last week so that they would have had ample time to complete any work that they missed. We reviewed this in class and they were given time to work on anything they were missing from their folders. In my mind that was it; what they had in their folders on the last day of the quarter was what they would be graded on for the quarter. These students are in high school and should be responsible enough and care enough about their grades to finish any work on their own that they needed to complete. But that was not it. My co-op suggested that we give them the final day of the quarter to clean up their folders. He reminded me that in some classes, over 50% of our students have IEP's and that they could use the additional time. I agreed with him but was still thinking that they've had plenty of time and they're not going to do any more than what they've already had the opportunity to do. Well, his years of experience proved me wrong and I'm so happy they did! What may have seemed like chaos to some, was actually a productive session where students completed assignments and brought their grades up quite a bit. A couple of students that had nothing in their folders actually had the work done and just needed to print out what they had saved. I was shocked. I had already given them a period the week before to do this. Maybe they were waiting until the last day of the quarter to get their work in? I believe some were but others actually needed the extra time and individual attention to complete the work. I was elated that so many of the students that I thought were going to fail the quarter, actually will be fine. So, reflecting on this week, I think time and patience are valuable gifts for any teacher to give. I want the students to do well and some just cannot complete the work as quickly as others. My co-op is very patient and has taught me a great deal in this area and I have the utmost respect for him.

If I could change anything about this week it would be to have additional work for students that had all of their assignments completed. I need to have some fun work or challenges in my back pocket at all times for those students. In today's all inclusive classes, it is difficult to keep all of the students at the same point. This was a very good lesson for me in differentiating instruction where students that are more advanced need extra challenges. If I make these fun and give them extra credit points, they will be more engaged and enthused during the class.