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Students

I teach as the main part of my job description. I have a sense of what it entails:  identifying goals for my students and pedagogy to help them achieve them. Lots of preparation, some contact in and out of class, lots of assessment.

I do struggle with what it means to be a student. It's easier to focus on being a student of one teacher at a time I guess. My experience was OCD in a good way I think---near-perfect attendance, assignments submitted on time, etc.

Now that we are no longer teaching virtually and students are back in the classroom, some students are struggling with being in the classroom aside from exams.  They turn in the work, receive average to poor grades, and I never interact with them aside from their assignments. It is very very strange, hoping that the structure that I have put in place is sufficient for them to learn without any person-to-person interaction with me. They are names on my roll but are they really my students?

Comments

  1. ToddMarch 23, 2022 at 6:23 PM

    Even in class, with the masks I find that the strength of my connection with the students is slower, especially since I use a face chart for connecting names to students and their data.

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    Replies
    1. JCMarch 24, 2022 at 9:55 AM

      It is refreshing to see some faces now that masks are optional. I'm taken aback by how far some students diverge from their photos on my roll. I'm most concerned about the students who do not actually want any contact with me in or outside of class, though; it's a lasting impact of COVID and teaching virtually.

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