The article by Joanne Pettis is so true!
Every december (once the students leave the school) and on March (once the students come back) I find myself making new resolutions for this year. It is sort of a self-evaluation moment where I assess what I can improve for next year.
I am quite structured as a person, so it is not like I leave everything for the last day. Therefore, I never have as a resolution not to leave everything till the last moment.
A resolution I make every year is that I am not going to be too flexible with due dates. It has happened to me that I feel sorry for some students, so I give them more time to hand in things. The problem is that I actually give them more time, but in the end everything is a mess as I am running after some students for them to give their projects.
Another resolution I always make is that my classes are not going to be so grammar-oriented, and that my classes will be more student-centered.
Of course it is hard to keep these resolutions because you have to be constantly monitoring yourself. I have improved in keeping the resolution of projects due date. My students know that if they do not hand in something, they will be penalized. Of course, I am flexible with the students that have NEE or if they had a problem with the printer, for example.
The resolution of my classes to be less grammar-oriented is a little more difficult to keep for mainly two reasons. I love grammar myself (I love sentence structure, conditionals, etc), and the school also gives importance to grammar. But I think this year grammar had a more meaningful and explicit purpose than past years.
I believe this article was included in a book of methodology because making resolutions is part of our essence as people. Everybody self-evaluates him/herself after a specific situation, change or process in terms of elements to improve. I consider "resolutions" to be very healthy as they give us a clue on the elements we give more importance to. At the same time, most of our resolutinos will be related to methodology in the sense that we want to change something for our students to learn better.
And by the way, I don´t feel identified with the comic strip at all!!!
We cannot avoid the school principles, but I found very interesting what you pointed out. "Teaching grammar in a more meaningful way", at the end you are motivating your students to learn and you are working in the line the school asks you, and the most important thing is that you are more engaged with your teaching practice!!!!
ResponderEliminarI totally understand Bernardita when you talk about flexibility. I have found that being strict when it comes to deadlines or rules is to be bounded to what you said. Students have lives, and life is complicated and things happen. However,it can be difficult to deal with those situations at times, it is a balance and as you said experience gives you tools or ideas to deal with complicated situations.
ResponderEliminarI think that being too flexible may have negative consequences. As Leyla said, it is important to find the balance between flexibility and responsibility, because we are also teaching our students to be responsible for their work.
ResponderEliminar