Holiday reflection post - saying "no" to students and other good news.

by Lindquist 7:45 PM 0 comments #edtech #RunIowa edtech holidays podcast Saying No Teacher Reflection

First, either I'm sorry or you're welcome for not posting in a while.

Yesterday was an odd experience for me. As a teacher, I like to let my students try things. Sometimes I know the outcome, sometimes I don't. I'm okay with kids failing as long as they don't do it more than once (for the same reason). I like when kids test limits and question things; it means they're thinking. But yesterday I put my foot down and said, "no."

Not so much as no as hey, I'm not going to let you do this.

My kids were ornery this week (the week before our holiday break). And I was gone on Wednesday. And my broadcasting kids did exactly what I told them not to do (something I've said all year): they interrupted classrooms. Generally, it's pretty harmless. But this week is our "funny holiday" show, which has become a sort-of prank show. Again, I'm okay with the idea ... if they do it appropriately. Unfortunately, I reflect and see I didn't do a good enough job explaining this and we had some issues.

So, I said this episode was cancelled.

Oh, I'm trying pull-quotes too.

At first, I expected a lot of fight from my kids. But in reality, they realized that what they did was not right. I heard from some teachers that they were disappointed in not having a show, but understood why (I sent an email to staff and CC'ed my kids).

And I feel this actually will be very beneficial to my kids in refocusing after our break and getting a broadcast show out better than we have in a while.

More good news....

I finally have some students interested in radio broadcasting. Well, as much as I am. And I've had kids before be interested, so we tried some broadcasting. But this time I have some kids that I felt confident enough to buy some new equipment:

Yesssssss!!!! I even drilled a hole in the table. I'm a nerd.

So far, the only bad news about it is my mixer was defective, so I sent it back. Oh, and I might not be able to have a single phone line (for callers), but I might be able to make Google Voice work.

Maybe.

Anyway, it was like Christmas came early:
I gave the naughty kids coal but earned some respect, and I gave the nice kids new radio equipment for podcasting, and earned some street cred.

Have a happy holiday, and hopefully I'll get a new post to you soon.