Every teacher faces that dilemma in which we must set the pacing of our class. Are we moving too fast, too slow, or just right? And how do we decide? Are students really not getting the material, or are they just neglecting to spend sufficient time PRACTICING outside of class? I don't want to lag and drag too slowly for those keeping up, nor do I want to go SO fast that students get frustrated and lose interest. Man, I could blog about this for quite a bit longer, but I've got homework to do - just needed to vent some. Maybe I need to take a page out of Kiki's book and be a little more adamant about the importance of practice...
If I get to teach this course again (I hope, I hope - PLEASE give me another chance!!!), I think I'll do "playing-pop-quizes" instead of scheduled playing tests. Or I could go back to requiring weekly practice journals, which I DID alot myself room for point-wise, and I DID put on the syllabus as an option, and I DID warn the students right at the beginning of the semester that I WOULD resort to this if I didn't think they were practicing sufficiently outside of class...
I dunno. gotta' go for now.
In the meantime, though, check out this link - I think the advice carries beyond the office walls...
Recovering from a Poor Performance Review.
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Yeah, crack down on them hard. I'm struggling with pacing, too. After the first test, I decided to go slower because students did so poorly. But, now I'm behind and needed to move two chapters on to the next test. It's rough, I bet you are going at the right speed for most of the students. And yeah, I'll bet you'll get another chance to teach again. I'm teaching again, too. So I'll make a bunch of changes to try to improve things next time. I appreciated that link to the performance review article. I'm working on changing my response to my own teaching review. It's a process....
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