Event in my teaching

An event in my teaching this week that took me by surprise was when one of my students started acting more positive in class. This particular student is one I had actually spoke about to some of you in class during our learning wheel exercise. According to him, he hated my healthcare class. There was also another student who verbalized the same sentiments. Both of these students would come to class, sit in the back and talk. Based on the information I received from you all, I reviewed my approach to this student and did somethings differently. First, I rearranged the seating in my class so that no one in this class sits in the back and my talkers are separated. This particular male student actually sits in the front now. I told the students that my reason for changing the seating assignments was to have the students closer to the front so that they could be more involved. I mentioned nothing about being punitive to the talkers. Secondly, one day when I came to class I took the first twenty minutes to ask the students what they thought they would learn in my introductory class and what types of things they thought they would do in labs. Needless to say most thought they would be working with the mannequins, taking blood pressures and conducting other health assessments. What I found out from this student was that he didn't like the class because it was not what he thought it would be. Once I showed him by a few examples of how important it was to learn basic health information in order to properly implement the labs actvities completed in the second course he began to change. He was on time for class this week and actively participated in all lab activities. I was so amazed I even thanked him for being so positive and participating in class even though it may be something that is not that exciting to him.
On the flip side of this, I had to make a call to the other student's parent because of her negative behavior. She had actually behaved worse. Dr. M shared some ideas with me for dealing with the male student that I actually had to implement with the female student because of her poor attitude. Now that I look back on the whole situation, I see why she acted out so much. I had removed her support when I placed her friend in the front. Since his behavior was changing, she no longer had someone to laugh or otherwise support her sarcastic remarks. When I spoke with her mother, I made sure I informed her of the student's positive abilities but asked for assisance on identifying strategies the mother found helpful in working through some of the negative challenges. As one might guess, mom is dealing with very similar issues at home but is supportive and willing to work with me on some possible positive reinforcements to help get this student on the right track as well. I will let you all know how this goes in a future blog!