My biggest success this past week was dealing with a potential mutiny in my class. The students were furious with me about a homework assignment that they had understood the day before, but apparently didn’t understand when they got home, so most of the class received low marks. The class was swearing at me under their breaths, upset that they got a low grade because they did not follow instructions. I calmed them down by making the next assignment (on the same material) due after the weekend, so they had time to work everything out. I also went over a few more example problems, emphasizing the specific steps they needed to complete for each problem. They all seemed much better Thursday (the following day) and by Friday everyone seemed back to normal.

      My biggest struggle this week was trying to make decisions on the fly. In both my chemistry class and my biology class, I had students asking questions about expectations and assignments. I was not sure how to answer them and therefore gave very wishy-washy answers that probably made students even more confused. Both my mentors commented that no matter what my decision was (whether it was the same decision they would have made or not) I needed to make one and stick to it. I will try to work on this in my biology classes, where I really have the final say in what I require. In chemistry, my mentor still has the final say, so it is harder to stray from his expectations. I need to make sure I know what they are before I can answer student questions.