Student Teacher

Yesterday, I spent the time practicing command phrases, pacing, and projection with the student teacher. It helped her find her voice and presence in the classroom, and this helped me slow down and become more mindful of my rate my pace, projection, location, and body movement.

My 7th hour class is a lot more settled with "I" relocated to another table to sit with "A" who is the quieter, gentler soul, and definitely someone who wants to do well in class. While I was giving a presentation, I noticed "I" was busy trying to have an interaction with one of his friends at his old table - I sense he needs attention every lesson. Perhaps I will try to give him positive attention as soon as he walks in, and also again when he takes out his work, and then when he starts working.

Students are working on their name plates, focusing, and coming up with great ideas.
Once again, I interupted class because students were using habitual images - musical note in their work and the student teacher let that pass (we had a talk at lunch about reinforcing this and having students rework their compositions, making them more complex). Research says to focus on desired behavior, and students need to have the reminder at the beginning of the school year of what to omit therefore what is acceptable. Where is the balance? How much interuption is too much, is it necessary, when do students actually pay attention to important information? Everything seems important, what filters do they use to define important versus critical?