The trimester is quickly coming to a head. This year my main goal was to get back to building relationships with my students. I felt last year I put too much emphasis on the cognitive and psychomotor domain, neglecting the affective domain. I implemented a hugs, high fives, or handshakes policy for my students. They could choose any of the three. My hope was that the physical touch would help break down barriers between myself and my students. I know for me personally I was in a much better mindset after the triple h’s.

It was time for me to judge just how well I was doing toward my goal. I gave my students a quick 5 question survey. The first survey made me quite upset when I saw the results. Three students thought that I disliked them. That is horrible. The interesting part is that the students who think this are not the students who take the bulk of my  time and attention. They are quiet and would have the ability to fall through the cracks if my school wasn’t so tiny. They are not students of color. I only mention this because I wanted to know if I was treating my students of color differently than the other students. I will make sure I actively work to create more positive interactions between myself and those students. 

The responses to question two were interesting. The previous 3 students who thought I disliked them  (submitted a score of 2) rated my class as a 2, 3, and 4. This means that one of those students thought I disliked them but still enjoyed my class. The other two thought my class was OK and poor. I was pleased that over 90% of my students were enjoying my class. Education has lost its way. They do not value fun and enjoyment of learning as much as they should. When educators are able to create positive associations with learning that is success. 

I finished the survey by giving them the ability to choose a dance and the next unit. This is one way how  the journey of shared power and student centered classrooms can continue. How often are we really finding out how our students feel about our class? This year we have been using a game based approach that can loosely be considered Teaching Games for Understanding. The overall feedback from the unit was mostly positive. My biggest problem now is to figure out how to create a dance to Juju on That Beat!