Brandon Harms

I loved the table showing "right thing" and "wrong thing", done poorly and done well. I think that this is a great way to picture a class and something to even show a class. Especially any class that involves a performance-based skill. There, students really have to feel comfortable going out on a limb and trying to do the right thing poorly in front of everyone in order to improve. This gives a nice framework for things I can do to help students get there. 

I do a pretty good job of moving around the classroom and engaging with students, but I do tend to focus on specific students like the loud ones, disruptive ones, and the ones who are doing really well in the class. I struggle to get to the quiet students as often. Improving that might help me to identify some of those students that are falling behind or inattentive before they start failing the class. Check-ins with those students would help me give them the support they need. 

I mainly need to improve at dealing with the inattentive students. I feel like I need to really focus on this at the beginning of the year because once you lose them its much harder to get them back. I think if you can identify them within the first couple of weeks before they have fully checked out, there's a chance to bring them back by talking to them, giving them jobs, or noticing when they do work. Once they have moved into the part of the year where they've missed 90% of the assignments and have a 10% grade… >>>

I need to do a better job of making assignment due dates clear far in advance. I often change them or push them back and that makes students think they can turn things in late or it makes them hope it gets pushed back. If I'm more intentional about making it clear and scheduling things better, I can make the due dates more meaningful.