Ch 5: Teaching to the Individual, Working with the Group

"The eye roller. Once angered or embarrassed by something, students like us stay that way throughout the course.  We deliberately tune out, to make sure you get the message that we don't care.

The wallflower. Students like us may know the answer or have something to say, but we have a high level of anxiety about our ability to perform. We don't raise our hands, because we don't want to be noticed.

The hand-waver. Students like us need to prove to the teacher that we're knowledgeable or smart. Grades matter more than anything to us.

The dreamer. Students like us know plenty, but we don't have a drive to prove ourselves to teachers. We prefer to inhabit our own private world, which is usually more comfortable than the classroom.

The con artist. Students like us are always developing strategies to fool the teacher into thinking we know something. We're not necessarily cheaters, but we know how to play the game and win.

The goof-off. Students like us may be very smart, but to impress our peers we spend most of our time joking around and causing disruptions.

The workhorse. Students like us always come to class, do the homework, and answer the questions. We might not excel, but the teacher can depend on us."

I found these categories of students very interesting, but once I tried to place myself in one of these categories I found out that some students may be different pieces of each and may not fit into any of these boxes. In high school, I was a dreamer because I used to doodle and daydream often, I was a con artist because I used to know how to ask the teacher for the answer in a way that would give me additional information that I didn't know, and I was a goof-off because I knew a lot, but I would sit with my friends and would pass notes and get distracted. As a student in college, in lectures I have become a bit of a wallflower, because the size of the class will intimidate me, and I am also still a dreamer because I doodle. However, I have realized that as a teacher, I can't be any of these things, I have to leave those habits behind and step up to the plate for my students.