The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday-Week 3

   This week was a milestone for me for a couple of reasons.  I administered my first exam this week and had to deal with that all too common problem--classroom management.  The former went very smoothly and had no disruptions.  The latter, however...well, we'll get to that in a moment.
   Two weeks ago I met with my cooperating teacher and began to discuss how we should design the unit exam.  He encouraged me not to reinvent the wheel, but to examine the work of other student teachers who had gone before me, to look at the exams they had used.  I did so, and found one which perfectly complimented all the events and persons which had been covered in the unit.  The French Revolution, Napoleon....everything was there.  I decided to use this exam while adding an extra reading prompt for the honors classes.  The each class, whether World History or World Civilization, had experienced the same lessons and so received the same exam.
   When we were preparing to administer the exam, my cooperating teacher posed a question to me: How much should the exam be worth of the overall unit grade?  I thought back to my time in college and came up with an answer of 25%.  My cooperating teacher used this answer as a starting point to share some thoughts on grading.  Since he has been teaching for 25 years, I took his advice very seriously.  He advised me to consider making the exam worth double the points of the other assignments for the unit.  I was staggered.  Double the points?  Then he explained his reasoning: if students have received an A so far in the class, it should not be easy for them to lose it.  On the other hand, maintaining it should not be so easy either.  By doubling the point value, someone who received a grade a bit lower than average would see their overall grade drop just a bit.  However, to maintain an A in the class, a student would have to receive an A on the exam.  This reasoning seemed logical to me, and I really liked the approach towards 'maintaining an A,' rather than 'getting an A.'  Therefore, I decided to go with the suggested point value.
   The second noteworthy even this week had to do with a disruptive student.  My cooperating teacher had a strict no cell phone use during class time, unless directed for an activity or granted for good behavior.  The students were doing a review for the exam which involved watching a short video about Paris and the architecture there.  One of my students had decided to play with their phone during class instead of watching the video.  I chose to grant a little latitude since the classroom was darkened and the student was not disrupting the class...then the student took a selfie with their flash on.
   At that point, I felt I had to step in.  In a firm tone, I instructed to the student to put the phone away.  Although the student did as directed, apparently they did not appreciate being called out in front of their classmates, and continued to play on their phone for the remainder of class.  I approached the class co-teacher and asked for their advice in dealing with the matter.  She spoke to the student after class, and the student said they were not playing on their phone, but instead had received a text.  She cautioned me about students shutting down when confronted publicly and to think about an alternative approach when in that situation. 
   I was understandably worried: Had I made a big mistake, did the class see me as a bully for calling out a student?  The remainder of the day was spent thinking about that episode and how I could have handled it differently.  I was thinking about how to salvage the situation when my cooperating teacher approached me at the end of the day with some surprising news.
   I had spoken with him about this incident earlier in the day and he decided to follow up with the classroom aide who was seated right next to the student during class.  Apparently, the incident hadn't lost the respect of the class: rather, the students who had been around the student in question had spoken after class with them, saying that they shouldn't have had their phone out.  I felt such relief hearing this, knowing that I hadn't lost the class.  I realized that I was making the situation worse in my mind than it really was and that I had made the correct decision.
   Each week seems to bring with it new learning experiences and I hope it continues for the duration of my teaching experience.  If I learn something new every day, then every day I will be a better teacher--and that is my goal.