This course has raised awareness for me in many new areas that I had not necessarily considered in the past. When asked to consider a driving question to guide my research throughout this course, I reflected on my teaching practice and the one question that stood out for me above all others was:
The reason this question stood out for me the most was because the all boys class is the class that I had the most challenges with when teaching. Many of the boys that made up the grade 7 gender class this year, I had taught last year and they were really good students. Something changed when these students were put into a single gender class and I felt like I had lost them in a sense. They were not as engaged in their own learning and it was difficult to control them as a class. These were not issues that were unique to me. Their homeroom teacher and other rotary teachers also had similar issues. As a team we did get the group as a whole on better track through the duration of the year by using a rewards system, however, I want to have a teaching practice where students are intrinsically motivated in constructing their own learning.
Throughout the
duration of this course, a few key ideas have resonated with
me and have helped
shape my new understanding of how to best start to answer my driving question to develop a program where the single gender classes, specifically the boys, are more engaged in their own learning.
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