Reply to comment

There have been so many ideas generated this week that remind me I still can't settled down with my ideas and think that is that. I always thought that someday I would come to an understanding of life- not just evolution but even the fine grained day to day interactions of people. In my seventh decade of life, I still haven't figured it out, but I am happy about that. It just means that life will continue to be interesting, and I will continue to experience the frustration of not knowing and the joy of learning. It was a good week, and I feel better about making the next year of teaching a better one.

Every time I stand before a class, I must remember that I can not predict the output from each student based on my input. Each student processes the ideas generated in our class via different pathways. The output is affected by both the pathways traveled by the input and the output generated by the students' brains without input that affect the input. What tools do I have?

I need to listen carefully to what my students say and give them as much opportunity to speak as possible. I also need to move the conversation away from myself as the central processor and get the students to converse with each other. This will not be easy as their conversational skills are not always respectful in the formal setting of the classroom. By shifting the students away from speaking to me and directing them to the other students, I could get some insight into two or three students and not just one at a time. I will continue to look carefully at the facial expressions and body language of students to gain some insight into their reaction to the classroom environment. The unconscious rules.