On the first day of class, I typically go over some of the class policies and/or procedures and then do a little "get-ta-know-ya" sort of activity. On the second day of class this year I decided to do a couple of group activities in order to highlight some group norms displayed in my classroom (thanks again to Sarah at mathequalslove). Like Sarah, in previous years I had norms like this posted and pretty much assumed (wrongly assumed) that the students would read and follow them. Yea ... not so much. So I am following her lead and trying to show the students what some of these things should look like in a group setting. While in reality this did work great, and I'm happy with the way my students handled the activities, the stress of trusting that many students work on something on their own had my body rebelling. See, I have 3 classes of 34 students, in a room comfortably built for maybe 25. I know there are teachers with way more students, but this is the most I have ever had in my classes. I'm definitely not used to it ... my self-diagnosed OCD, mixed with years of built up control issues were seriously tested today!I think I passed though! :-)
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