Personalities within the Classroom

Character traits in the class room are becoming evident! Each class has several personalities combined together to form one classroom personality. It’s amazing to see that the teacher’s mood really affects the classroom persona. I expected to see a large difference between the Honors class and the Regents class; however, I was shocked to see the difference between the two Honors class. My first two periods are Honors level classes and my third period class is Regents level. In general, my second period of Honors students seems to be weaker than the first class, even though the lesson plans are exactly the same. It is important to note, that as the teacher, I believe the lesson given second period is better than the same lesson given first period. In my opinion, each time I teach the same lesson, it gets better. I feel more confident with the material and have an idea of the questions that will be asked.

After the first two weeks of class, it is apparent that second period tends to take longer to go over homework, quizzes, and tests. There are more questions on concepts and simple errors in period 2. Also, it seems that overall period one’s atmosphere screams confidence, where period 2 does not. I want to boost the confidence level of period 2. I also note that new strategies may have to be developed for going over homework with period 2.

My goal for the remaining of the semester is to build the confidence in period 2. Confidence is part of what makes an Honors student stand out.