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 Importance of Flexibility 
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I've always thought it was crazy important for teachers to be flexible. How important do you consider it? Like today, Dr. Turner realized that the majority of her students hadn't done their homework. She didn't let this hinder her lesson. She proceeded, and we talked about the article. Furthermore, she did not punish or lecture as (in my experience) most teachers would. I doubt she was even trying to teach us something there - I think it's probably just how she operates - but I thought a lot about that. Had I been in her position, I don't know that I would have handled it as well. I foresee myself getting upset if my students aren't doing their homework. Also, while I would definitely ask why, I still think I would be a little angry and probably not as willing to take their explanations into consideration as Dr. Turner was. I've had way too many teachers/professors fly off the handle for stuff like that, so I can pretty much guarantee that I'll remember the day I didn't read the article and my professor didn't lose her cool about it. I'm hoping that by keeping that in mind, I'll be able to extend the same courtesy/understanding to my students and be able to roll with the punches. There are way too many circumstances that can arise to get really obsessed with sticking to very detailed/concrete lesson plans, I think.

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Natalie Brady


Tue Feb 24, 2009 10:44 pm
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As a future elementary school teacher I know that I will have those students who will not read or do the activities that I will send home. I hope that I will have the attitude I have now about being understanding. I know that not all students can remember homework at a young age and that sometimes parents are just too busy to help the child. I know I will try to be as understanding as possible, but also try to help the child stay focused and know when they have something to do for homework.

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Heather L. Heath


Wed Feb 25, 2009 11:48 am
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I agree with Natalie and Heather. I think it is important for teachers to be flexible in working with the lessons and activities prepared for the students. Students learn in many different ways so you might have to come up with another strategy for a student to understand something that you had not anticipated being a problem. In addition to that, I think that teachers also need to be organized in a sense of planning out their year and how they will accomplish certain goals as well as the lessons they will teach that day planned out.

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Laura Davis


Wed Feb 25, 2009 2:53 pm
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Flexibility is very important. As a teacher I believe that I can implement rules and hope that my students will follow them and do their homework when it is assigned but I also understand that there can be extenuating circumstances and that no child learns the same. I also loved when Dr. Turner realized some students weren't reading and she thought on her feet and just thought of an alternative so that everyone could still have a discussion. Maybe not as in depth as she would have liked, but she still made the points she wanted to in that class and didn't get "mad" at her students. I think that's very important to show the students that sometimes when things don't go how you planned, there's always a backup plan to still have a successful class.

Casey Gill


Thu Feb 26, 2009 11:57 am
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I agree that flexibiltiy is very important. As a an elementary school teacher I will expect them to all complete their homework and assignments but I understand that sometimes their are certain circumstances that would lead kids to not do so. For example, when I did Cadet Teaching there was a girl in one of my classes that never did her homework and the teacher had kind of given up on her but I pulled her aside and asked her why she never did her homework. She said that she lived with her aunt who got home late and would only have time to help her own kids with their work but not her. There was no one else there to help her or do things like quiz her on her spelling words. There are going to be children with circumstances like this and I think you just have to work around it as best you can and help the students that don't do their homework for reasons like this.

As for Gayle's reaction, I think she is more than aware that we are all in college and responsible for our own actions. If we do not do the homework than it is our own fault, and she isn't going to baby us and try to force us to do it. Honestly, most of the professors that do make a big deal about it often still don't get more people to do it. She worked around the issue and thought of a way to still complete the lesson which shows us that flexibility is important.

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Kimberly Marie Isidori


Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:30 pm
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I really did appreciate the way that dr. turner handled that. But I feel like i can say with almost certainty that there is no way i will be able to handle the continual not reading the same way when I'm a teacher. I've never been a perfect student, so undoubtedly there have been times that I haven't read or had prepared for a day. but I always forget that on the other side, and I think i really just needed someone to be like, "Dinah, stop screwing around... this counts too" when i was in high school - 'cause i was just being lazy.

I have this other class that NO body reads for because there is no motivation to do it. The teacher hardly ever talks about the readings directy, we are never quized on the information -verbally or on paper- and she never announces the homework. First of all, when you aren't going to need the information, what's the point?, and second, how are we even suppose to know what we need to read when the only place that the assignment is in writing is in an obscur folder on only the computers in Edwin Duncan. Pretty much my only motivation to read is because she is so nice outside of class, and that it may help me in the future. But when it comes down to that and finally catching a few winks of sleep outside of the ENORMOUS amount of projects I have or wasting that time on something I won't be needing any time soon.

OOPS my bad student is showing... :wink:

But the moral of that story is that i have two solutions for this issue of getting more people to read... 1) REALLY emphasize the homework so there is no confusion and the students won't forget to look for it, and 2) make sure that the lesson ties in to the class discussion in a distinct way.

This is more of for future teachers though, not for Gayle, because i think that now that we are beginning to really talk about them it gives more incentive to read. It's probably just going to take a while for it to sink in classwide.


Thu Feb 26, 2009 2:57 pm
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I agreee totally with what everyone is saying. I think it is an important aspect in teaching to be flexibility. When I think about it I know there are going to be the days when I am going to lose my cool or get upset when more than half of my students do not do an assignment. I think an important thing is finding out why and not always blaming the students. I want to be able to think that I can look at an activity or assignment and figure out if there was a problem from the beginning.

I really appreciated how Dr. Turner handled the situation. I always hated the teachers/professors that would blow up at a class instead of getting to the root of the problem. I love how she treated us like the adults we are. I know I sometimes forget about getting things read and I know it is a problem I need to fix. In my future as a teacher like others have said I am going to remember that class and how Dr. Turner handled it. On my part I really enjoyed the discussion and what I learned from the article and flexibility.

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Alicia Yewcic


Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:53 pm
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I agree with everybody too. Flexibility is one of the most important characteristics we can have as teachers. Even if we plan out to the minute our lesson plans, chances are, something is going to come up. I think learning is most fun when it is spontaneous. If I were to teach Social Studies and had a lesson plan for, say, The Great Depression, and one of my students said that hey, that sounds kinda like our finacial situation now, I would totally take that opportunity to talk about how that tied in so that the students could relate to something they know.

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Crystal Brooke Ritchie


Tue Mar 03, 2009 12:06 am
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I think it is EMTREMELY important to be flexible. I am substitute teacher back home and I quickly learned that flexibility is one of the most important things for a teacher to know. Sometimes things happen during the school day that you can't prevent, but make you have to change the way you run the classroom for the rest of the day.

Today is a perfect example. Back home, they are running on a 2 hour delay because of snow. I know all the kids in the school (it is a small charter school) and I know that they will all be hyper from being out of school yesterday and having the delay today. They will be too excited to learn anything so they won't get much accomplished today. The teachers will have to come up with creative ways to teach that will work well with the children in their hyper state. Also, the teacher has to revise their lesson plan for the 2 hour delay. They won't have the same amount of time for each subject as usual.

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Emily Towery


Tue Mar 03, 2009 12:20 pm
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Flexibility is extremely important in the classroom! Not just with people doing their homework or with school delays but with accidents that can happen in the classroom. During 5th D the little boy I was with cut his finger and blood was gushing EVERYWHERE!!!!! I had to grab him and run to the bathroom, try to stop all the bleeding and contact his mother. This took a VERY long time and if it happened in an actual classroom it would have taken up plenty of instructional time. Teachers definitely have to think on their feet and be flexible with everything!!!


Wed Mar 04, 2009 7:11 pm
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Flexibility is such an important quality for teachers to have! Not all lessons are going to go perfectly and smoothly! There will be times when we will have to change or modify things to fit them even in the time frame that we have. I think it is important for teachers to be flexible with other teachers as well. If a student missed a day and needs to make a test or something up, teachers will have to be flexible and work with each other for the best for the student. Teachers also need to be flexible with their students because things are going to come up where students will miss days and assignments and the teacher needs to be willing to work with the student. Thus, I think flexibility is such a key quality that teachers should have!

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Jennifer Beach


Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:48 pm
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