You Can't Make Them Drink

I know we were told over and over that the students are not like us and that you can lead them to water but you can't make them drink, but I didn't really understand what that meant until now. I'm not sure how you help teachers to understand that concept, but I wish I could have understood my students a little bit better. I kept wondering if my teaching was the problem, or if I had a bad crop of students, but neither of those things seem to be the case. Finally, at the end of the class, just today I really felt like we were connecting. It's too bad it was my last class and there wasn't much left to say. Even though it was the last day I was still shocked. One of my students who I was sure would show up today and turn in his paper didn't turn it in. I have two students who are close to passing but for some reason just didn't do the last paper. It makes me sad, and still shocks me. I'm not sure I will ever get over their lack of caring.

These are the things I will do differently next time in no particular order:

-Smile more. It was a rough semester and there were tired days. I need to learn how to fake through the tired.
-Steal from Emily and connect with my students through the things they enjoy
-Don't let them get to me. It's their choice not to show up and not to do the work.
-Find some more visual/teaching aids that go along with the essays we read. I didn't do a lot of images with Cinderella or advertising and I think it would make it more interesting for those units
-The class was a lot of discussion which worked sometimes. I would like to see if there are pieces where I could lecture a little and pull in resources from the outside that might spark their interest
-Give them due dates for reading responses. I'm not sure the lack of structure worked in their favor. I can't decide if it hindered them and they forgot about the reading responses or if they would have still failed to turn them in if there were due dates.

That's all I can think of right now. I'm sure more will pop up when I prep for this class next time. Here's for the first semester of teaching being completed (except for the pile of essays to grade). Woohoo!