In-Class Reflection

I am saddened to admit that there is little I feel I need to share with you since my students behave no differently and the assignments have been easier. The past four weeks have been filled with simple in-class assignments acting as attendance markers. I even find myself feeling less engaged with the pedagogy process because it feels like my students do not care to learn, but rather simply receive an “easy A.” With my sections, I have discovered that regardless of how interactive I design class, the students give me the same indifferent reaction. Even the overall attendance is down in my sections; students miss in-class assignments and complain when they notice a grade of 0 for discussion sections they have missed. I have become accustomed …show more content…
Hopefully, this day to reflect upon my experiences will revitalize my investment/interest in the course. Also, I will use this week to talk with Dr. Paul, who is head professor for the class, about the upcoming assignments and how we can design them to be more engaging. I have overheard many complaints from my students that the assignments are stupid and often they dread completing them. The design of this course does not encourage students to become interested in the material or attend lecture/discussion; we move too quickly through the topics, which causes students to question the validity of an assignment module. I would like to volunteer to help work through some of the assinments particularly utilizing the feedback I have witnessed from students and from my studies in my pedagogy class. I believe Dr. Paul would be open to this idea and it would give me a chance to practice working through assignment design as well as use my knowledge from our pedagogical readings. In my opinion, the current assignments are either too easy or too detailed to be completed in a 50 minute class period and we should focus more on tying the assignments to the information from the lectures otherwise the students do not understand how to prepare for the …show more content…
The only problem is that I am not sure what or how this moment will happen; as of now I have no clear solution as what needs to change in class. I believe that simply by thinking ahead to the next couple of weeks, better preparing my lessons, and creating/finding engaging video clips for examples can help alleviate the situation, but I do not think it is a total solution. By taking the first step towards reengaging maybe I can gain momentum for the rest of the semester or maybe as students realize class is drawing to an end now is the time to really make an effort with their grades. I plan to discuss with Dr. Paul how we can make the assignments more interactive during class time and I am optimistic this will may be feel more