From the Girl About to be Fired
So, I'm not allowed to do classroom training right now; but they let me do two one-on-one gas remedial trainings today.
One was easy - she was clever and fun. We breezed through the material without much issue.
The other was more of a challenge. He was so overwhelmed. No amount of reassurance seemed to comfort him, despite his success with the review ( Read more... )
I think the ways in which we nurture are tied to how we were nurtured, and my parents were old fashioned. One of the ways in which they conveyed their faith in us was by maintaining high expectations. I know I bring that to my classroom. In my mind and in my heart, I believe that to decrease my expectations of a student / employee when they're struggling would be an insult to their intelligence and to my integrity.
In analyzing my own behavior, I can say that this may be one of the ways in which I am losing my students. The high expectation part is clear, but with a room full of people it's harder to sit down with someone on an individual basis and assess exactly what they need.
Adult learning methodology supports the idea that adults learn better when there is storytelling incorporated into the lessons. I've had three comments on my evaluations which specifically address the ways in which I tell stories. Where is the disconnect? I have to assume I'm doing it wrong.
I've had a lot of supervisors in my life, and the best ones were those who a) had high expectations, b) supported my efforts to meet / exceed them, and c) then supported my on-going success by helping me get where I wanted to be. I'm not their boss, but I am guiding their development. So, I attempt to cultivate that type of relationship in the classroom.
Should I be given the chance to continue working on it, my challenge will be learning how to become a great classroom teacher, and I think I have the chops. But, I'm not going to be phoning it in in the meantime, hoping they start to understand if I'm just nice enough. I can be nicer, but I have had enough students who really liked me to believe that nice is not really the issue.
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