One thing that I always wondered in high school was why I had to do things that my teachers didn’t have to do. This mostly applied to my PE classes because in the rest they kind of did have to do what we were about to do in order to show us how. I hate the idea of my students thinking that I’m wasting their time on something that I would never do myself though, so I think that when I ask them to write a weekly blog, I will do the same. A public blog for my classroom that allows them to see that I’m doing the same activity. I’m sure that it will take some learning of how to walk the fine line of appropriate, but I have faith that I will be able to find a way to write about what I’m learning and what I’m wanting to teach without slipping too much.

I think I’ll also challenge myself to join my students in writing one of the assignments that I give to them each semester. Perhaps I will even let them decide somehow which one I do. By doing something like this I will have to keep on the same timeline as I expect them to do, and I will have a working example for them to use that I haven’t gotten sick of reading over for the last several semesters. I will however remind them that for each paper they write I will have 30 or so to read, so doing all of the papers with them is not an option. Perhaps my willingness to join them in the seemingly mundane tasks will give students a different perspective on the typical, “I’m the teacher so do it” tone that some teachers have.

I expect that this may also give me some good perspective on just what exactly I am asking of my students. If something is too difficult for me to pull off, why is it that way, and are students facing the same sort of challenges? Maybe that assignment will have to be modified to be either longer or more accommodating.