Domenic Martini Week 7

One thing I will be including in my instructional plan is an opportunity for participants to discuss and vent their frustrations regarding student behaviors. This can often be the largest pitfall to any meaningful discussion or solution finding, teachers spending the entire time “venting” about the problems and feeling helpless about the solutions to these issues. I’ve been a part of sessions where this is all that happens and I’ve been a part of instructional practices where teachers are discouraged from discussing problems and have to focus only on solutions. Both of these have issues, the latter I discussed but the former can also create discontent within the staff because they may feel their voices aren’t being heard or their frustrations are not being validated by the instructional staff.

Something I will be keeping in my instructional plan based on my observations are plenty of opportunities for discourse and discussion between participants. One-to-one, small group, and large group discussions will all stay a part of my instructional plan because of the level of clarity and reflection it brings to the process. Being able to verbalize our thoughts makes a real difference because it forces us to deal with them a lot more since they are out in the open and not hidden away in some lesson plan or in the back of our mind.

Something I plan to improve this week is my reasoning and evidence behind my activity choices. I believe I know what theories attach best to the different practices I’ve chosen, I just need to develop my reasoning a little further to substantiate them. Something I often tell my students is that we all have opinions and assumptions, but what makes them worth sharing is the evidence we have to back them up.