As the school year winds down, I contemplate all the educational & instructional highs and lows of my year. I, of course, dwell on the negatives more than the positives - but of course that could be because there weren't that many positives. I felt a general sense of comfort in the classroom, connecting to the students and meeting their human need to have a person on front the class and not a robot or disciplinarian. However, it is quite possible that the lack of clear boundaries of what to do in the classroom – in a true learning environment – that leaves me wondering if they actually learned as much as they could.
My syllabus, in hindsight, was overly prescriptive. Although filled with important terms and activities and concepts, it was for all intents and purposes, a dead letter. I have already start major revisions on the document. I am set on highlighting the fundamental concepts and topics necessary in teaching a basic economics course. I want to keep the expectations high, but provide for some depth in the class. I am deliberating ways to touch on the 5 or 8 or 10 or so concepts that underpin much of economic thought and allow for the students to delve deeper using the very material that is not directly taught in lecture or activities.
I can’t but feel that the students walked away with a superficial grasp of the topics, generally. On top of that, I felt as though students had to do very little reading and writing – the linchpin in any academic endeavor – through the semester. With this in mind, I am going to orient that class differently in how they process the material. Gone are the days of feeling like I needed to give them a 10 point quiz every Friday. Over and over again the students either cheated off their neighbor, changed the answers or some combination but it was assessing what they were truly learning or holding them accountable to the reading schedule, which is what it was intended to do.
If I can create a ‘bookmark’ with the essential terms, and have them frequently use and reuse those terms in writer in their binders – I think they will make more meaning of the concepts. Current events – from Business week and other magazines – should be used frequently as well. Almost every day, the students should be reading and writing about the principles being taught in a relevant fashion. But like so many ideas, it can’t be over done either. Consistency cannot lose out to boredom or complacency on the kids party. If I’m not mistaken, Trish gave us a book that might be good to look through to try to differentiate the writing prompts.
Since I have now taught the course 4 times at the regular level and once at the AP level, I feel like my economic knowledge is strong enough to branch out a bit more and get away from the book quizzes and tests and raise the bar on the type of instruction, content and assessments used. Ultimately, the students will be better off.
