As I am writing here today, July 8th, 2024, I reflect on my last practicum in which I was teaching two eighth-grade English courses with a focus on digital literacy. I taught blocks 1 and 4 and was able to witness firsthand how the time of day affects learning abilities and how certain groups of students thrive or fall victim to the influence of their peers.
The classes I taught were the same topics but very, very, different experiences and outcomes. Both experiences were positive, and I am happy with the majority of the student work I received. My morning group of students was taught in a science lab with no windows and I believe that this environment is the reason for some of the work delay and student behavior. It was also the first class of the day for most students, and they were tired first thing in the morning and needed more of a push to start their work and be productive. This class was my most difficult class when it came to attendance, mainly because it was a morning class and we had a bad case of chronic lateness! Not only were latecomers an issue but I also had a student who NEVER came once. I couldn’t even tell you what they looked like, but I can state that one of my peer student teachers taught the student in the second period and they came every single day. Was I the issue? I never found out.
My afternoon block was a complete turnover from my morning class, little to no students missed class without notice and they were constantly excited to learn and participate in lessons. Now I have theories on why they were so excitable, one is that this class was taught in a classroom that had windows! Daylight makes all the difference in encouraging positive perspectives. I was also able to take this class outside more as we were already in a portable class. Having classes outside was quite the adventure, it worked for some topics but was very unhelpful or impossible to complete for others, so to compromise and help relieve their “wiggles” every class we took a 5-minute movement break where the students would lap the school before coming back to class and participating in break out work groups or working on their projects.
I was really pleased to have two relatively easygoing student groups, with little to no tensions between peer groups. My students were willing to try all the ‘fun’ games I came up with for digital media lessons and would help me develop games to be more fun while still being academic.
What did I notice when I compared these two blocks? Well I learned that although I have plans that I made prior to class I need to be adaptive and recognize that one class’s ability to learn something may be faster or slower than the other block and that every day they may not be learning the same exact lesson. Well, to frank, there are no repeating lessons, yes the assignments were the same (for the most part) and the activities were too, but the discussions and outcomes that arose from the lessons differed greatly. Students are unique and diverse individuals so my lessons must be prepared for that.
