C4T #3

The teacher's post I am reading this week is called Think Thank Thunk: dealing with the fear of being a boring teacher. The author is Shawn Cornally. He is a teacher in Iowa who is really trying to change the way he teaches. He posts often and in quite detail. The first post was titled Scheduling Experiments: Open Periods Make Me Seethe. At his school in Iowa, the students get an 84 minute open period each day. The period is suppose to be used for homework, studying, and things of that sort. But it is often used for anything but school related material. One of the big problems is that the students strive for getting that free block and it is not because they cannot wait to study! Is giving these students a "free" period teaching them that just simply being at school is important? Do they not get enough free time once they get home? Mr. Cornally suggests that something wise be done during their open period such as an art class or even learning Japanese. I think if an open period must be given, at least an extracurricular activity could take place during those 84 minutes.

In his second post that I viewed, he talks about reconstructing the way standards are approached. He wants his students to be apart of the way things are done in his classroom. For example, he gives them a choice as to take a quiz or to do something different. If they choose on Wednesday that they want to take the quiz, they will take it on Thursday. I have never really enjoyed taking quizzes but I would probably to choose to take one like some of his students do! I think quizzes help you out in the end. Mr. Cornally stated that "My kids will know stuff, and they’ll know how to figure it out." This statement really says a lot about the kind of teacher he is. You can truly tell the he sincerely cares about his students. I think there should be more teachers like this! We should all really want our students to succeed. We need to do what it takes to reach that outcome.