Into my fourth month of my first year teaching, I already have a list of things I'm going to change for next year. Including, but not limited to:
- The way I assign and grade homework. Seriously. I spend at least an hour a day logging in all that paperwork -- and I don't even use it as an actual, detailed gauge of what students know/don't know. It really is turning into a massive pile of busy work, for me and for the students. I've got several ideas on how to adjust it, but haven't decided on any one yet. I like the weekly turn-ins the most, I think. Also a variety of choices in problem selection.
- The way I do in class practice. There's got to be a way to carve out more time for this. Ten minutes a day isn't enough.
- The way I utilize technology. Basically, right now, I don't. Other than posting assignments and announcements on my teacher webpage, that is. It would be wonderful to have students submit assignments online.
- Focusing on meaningful connections more than the drill and kill methods.
No solutions yet, but I'm working on it.
2 comments:
Don't have students turn in stuff on line unless you have a system where the computer also auto grades the homework. Just the extra 30 seconds per assignment that the file managing takes makes grading for the on-line class I teach significantly longer than the grading for the in-person classes I teach. If it weren't math, it would probably be much easier to handle on-line homeworks.
Really? Because a major part of turning to electronic homework submissions is to cut down on the time I spend doing paperwork. Gotta think through this thing clearly...
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