Synthesis Blog #2

Chapter 11 of ‘Subject Matters’ shows how every teacher has a duty in attempting to leave an everlasting impact on the way a student views their education. This is most important for students that believe their time invested in learning yields little results. Causing them to put in as little effort possible and looking forward to the end of the school day. A vicious cycle results when a teacher allows this type of behavior because the longer it occurs the more out of touch the child will become with the school. Instances such as these call for caring educators that will make the effort of building a connection, eventually revealing the reasons why the student feels discouraged from putting forth their best effort and being ready to talk out a solution. 

Furthermore, the development of self-monitoring for students stands out in the text from Cris Tovani’s class where one student commented “I’m sick and tired of you telling the class that it’s our job to know when we know and know when we don't know. You’re the teacher. Aren’t you the one who is supposed to know when we understand something and when we don’t?” (Daniels, Zemelman 284). The student’s comment would frustrate me if I knew they hadn’t even looked at the textbook. However, I believe bringing this strategy together with trust would make a student who rarely reads assigned text more likely to do so. Picturing the diversity of my future classroom points to the amount of patience and understanding an educator needs for their students. As a college student, my strategies for self-monitoring have progressed where I feel effective in balancing school, work, family and friends. This isn’t the same for at-risk youth who can’t maintain focus in the classroom because their attention is entwined with family problems, etc.… 

Word Count: 302