Students: 12
One thing that went well: We’re on our second big writing project, and this one is much easier for the class. They’re writing letters. I think it’s more concrete than just an opinion piece, so it’s less nerve-wracking, less academic, and possibly more useful. Note to self: start with this one next time.
One thing to improve: I’ve kind of stopped writing the daily plan on the board (i.e. 1. writing, 2. reading, 3. computers), but I think I should start again. I just think it’s better to give the class a bit of a road-map of where we’re going on a given day.
One surprise: The computer lesson. Today’s topic was judging Google results. I stated the goal (to judge Google results). I demonstrated. I checked for understanding. We repeated the goal together. The class had a sparsely-worded assignment to refer to. But it turned out that a few people still had no idea what we were doing. I discovered this when they emailed me answers that had nothing to do with judging Google results. Sigh. I shouldn’t have been surprised – my less tech-savvy students were the most confused ones. Leveled computer classes, please!