The guy who teaches next to me (Mr. B) cracks me up. Today he stopped by my room to "borrow" my tape (later he told me he hoped it was ok if I didn't get it back) and saw my kids were working together in group projects. He was like, "You've discovered the ol' spring fever group projects, huh?" Well, let me tell you that he sure has! It seems that his kids are either sharing current events, watching a movie, or doing group projects. It totally works for his class... it just wouldn't work for mine.
Also, group projects just give me a headache. I'd way rather do other kinds of activities. Group projects involve selecting just the right groups with just the right topics. Not to mention getting the rubric set up, the directions laid out with all of the what ifs included, things to do for early finishers, ways to work around kids who aren't finishing, blah blah blah. Ok. I'm a control freak. I do realize this. That's definitely part of it.
But back to my buddy Mr. B. He is also the guy who is completely jealous of me because my husband is on his way to being a doctor. One day he said, "I married a teacher (dripping with disgust). We'll have to work the rest of our lives." Also, "You're not going to be one of those people who works even if they don't have to - they do it because they love it. Makes me sick." Ha!
3 comments:
Group projects have a couple benefits:
1) kids love them, even if they end up doing more work than usual
2) If you're lucky, you'll have 5 minutes (between answering questions and keeping kids on task) to look around the room and appreciate all the cooperative learning going on. It is worth it all, just for that 5 minutes of pride and joy.
Man, do I sound like someone who just "loves to teach". Bleah!:)
Yes, that's definitely true Lyz. I should start posting the positives as well! I still DO group projects even thought they give me a headache because there ARE so many benefits. They kids love 'em and in the real world most jobs call for collaboration so they might as well practice now - just to name a few! Or maybe rename the two you added. heehee
Oh, go ahead and gripe. I need to remember the reality, not just all the fun stuff...
How about those grading rubrics! Do you deliberate over points like I used to? Esp. when it made the difference between an A and a B. Then all objectivity got thrown out the window.
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