A richer semester ~ with Nagash Clarke~
Lessons from a 3-year-old, part 2
One Battle at a Time
We have heard the old phrase,” choose your battles.” That is a true statement indeed. I would like to add to that and say for the battles you must fight: “one battle at a time.” Our three year old is finally potty-trained. Yeah! Now if we could get her to pick up her toys and put her shoes away instead of leaving our living room floor a mine field. Then we have to get her to actually sit still and eat food without being coaxed and cajoled (we don’t have to do this for fun foods like cake of course). With students we would like them to do everything right all at once. Maybe at first we work on coming to class. Then we work on coming to class on time. Next we work on turning assignments in on time. Then we work on being engaged and taking notes (maybe not in that specific order). Sadly we may not be able to work on all these in one semester. The point is we may be only to accomplish a few if only one positive outcome for the entire semester. The rest will have to wait for another semester or another teacher. I used to feel like I had to stress all the good student-like behaviors all the time--full throttle. Some students just cannot grasp the concept of punctuality for example. They may take all semester to finally figure out that it is a good idea to be on time versus not. And that might be the one take away from your class. Cheer-up. We don’t always see the finished product. But just know that the one bolt or turn of the screw-driver that you added is helping to make the whole product.
Nagash Clarke
Chemistry Department
Washtenaw Community College