Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Ok, so I was in class today and we were asked to do a few problems and raise our hands when we are done. It made me think of what we discussed in class yesterday about raising hands when you are done. I felt like I was pressured to finish my assignment fast and if I wasn't done and raising my hand the other students would have just stared at me waiting. I did not like this at all! I like the idea that you do something subtle so that you are not noticed if you did not finish.
It made me think about the way I would assess my class. I would not make them raise their hands I would probably do something like thumbs up, or cross your legs. Because I think that even when a teacher says when your done raise your hand, some students may not even finish their assignment and just raise their hands because everyone else is already done. They might just rush through it and not understand it because they don't want to be the last one. I do not think this is good. But doing something subtle would be better. I just thought I would tell you about my experience with it today and how I did not feel comfortable at all!

3 comments:

Mohammad Awadallah said...

I agree with you, sometimes raising hand's makes students feel pressured to finish the assignment quickly so that they won't feel left out, but there are subtle way's of doing thing's, like what Dr. L showed us--raising your thumbs etc..

Dr. Luongo said...

First of all, I am sorry you felt pressured!

However, I think you lived the "pain"...so you can be sensitive to the students you will teach.

Thumbs on desks are a great way. Another one is to have students hold their pencils with both hands or take one hand and place it on top of the other.

Thanks for your reaction, Chrissy!

Chloe said...

I agree with you completely. I never really thought about it, until I read your blog, but I didn't like the fact of raising your hand. It made me feel really uncomfortable only because everyone is looking around to see whose hand is NOT up. I think the way I would go is that when you are done, you're done, wait quietly.