Which battles do you fight?

I had a great conversation today after school with two of my dearest friends. We came to the question, Which Battles do You Choose to Fight?

Thoughts in Progress….

There are so many different little battles in every classroom every day: some that we see, and even others we’re hardly aware of. If we try to carry or fight them all, it becomes too heavy. We are humans (like the Scrubs theme, “I’m no Superman”), so we choose.

So which battles do we choose to fight? Do we fight the kids who daze out the window, or the kids who do other homework in class, or the kids who consistently bring out their iPod/cell phone, or the kids who would rather talk to friends, or the kids who have a disrespectful tone, or the kids who really just don’t care, or the kids who purposefully fly under the radar so they can slide by with the bare minimum, or the kids who are hurting so badly that they couldn’t focus on German if they wanted to, or the kids whose sense of entitlement is irresponsible and disrespectful, or the kids who need you to fight for them and love them because no one else in their life will, or the kids who… the list goes on and on. The interesting thing is that we all choose different things… and,  most of the time,  these battles go unanswered even when it looks like a teacher has “great classroom management”.

So the question becomes,
Do the battles one chooses to fight make one teacher “better” than another?

Moodling Madness

As part of the 23 things, I am going to add Moodle to the exercises. A number of staff members showed real interest in learning more about Moodle. I’m still very excited about Moodle and had the administrator enable Outcomes so that I can utilize formative assessment even more throughout my courses. Ultimately, I think it would be cool to rest mainly upon formative assessment, but I need to take it step by step.

I am also playing the waiting game for the workshop and exercise modules to get enabled by our administrator (who has been super helpful!). I’m excited about the opportunities that are held in the workshop module, with students able to work for and with one another… instead of just me. I think it reiterates the idea that teh teacher should not be the “be all and end all” because, in real life, teachers will not be there as the “be all and end all”… peers, on the other hand, will be. My wondering is how I am going to ensure that kids take their job of assessing others seriously.  I know that it will help them become better German students (and students in general), and I know that their peers are going to be amazing assessors (if they hold themselves to actually assessing), and I know  that assessment for  learning is the best… so what talk do we need to have for a good buy-in from all parties?

Last question: how have you used workshops, exercises, and (something I didn’t mention here today) Hot Potatoes in your Moodle?