I try to talk one on one with each student at least once everyday. This doesn't always happen--especially if there are a few kids being especially challenging and requiring lots of attention. I also try to keep up on looking at and responding to student work so that I can identify those kids that are struggling.
Monday, October 22, 2012
focusing on students
I came away from conferences a bit overwhelmed by this topic--hearing parents talk about thier children and simply taking the time to reflect on each individual kid really brought home how much attention each one needs. I was surprised to hear about anxiety and insecurities in our room that neither Diane nor I had picked up on.
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Have I already shared with you the scary statistic about how much time in a week students have their teacher's undivided attention? It's something like 1-2 minutes. Yikes! But I bet you're not surprised, right? It's a big challenge to find those spaces to talk with kids one-on-one, especially when your class size is above 30. It's great that you're making it a priority to connect as much as possible with kids. When I was teaching 5th grade, I used before and after school times to make the connections happen. I invited kids to come early and help me set up for the day. I could count on 1 or 2 each morning. And after school I often hosted book clubs or craft clubs--or job clubs where kids helped with cleaning and organizing. There were usually more takers in these afternoon spots, so I wasn't getting pure one-on-one time, but it was a new context in which I could get to know my students (and vice versa) and I think it contributed to teaching/learning success in the regular class day.
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