Reflection #4

            I think that although many teachers try to avoid stereotyping in the classroom it does happen even at the secondary level.  When students reach the high school level they start to show their personalities more and more which sometimes can give teachers the impression that they might not be the best students.  There are some students that dress in a manner that is not traditional and that may give the impression that they will be less than model students.  For example I have one student in my class that came in wearing all black with dark eyeliner and was very quiet.  Sadly I did stereotype her as one of the students that was probably going to be difficult to motivate in class.  However she definitely proved me wrong, she is a great student and a great person which showed me that you can not always just a book by its cover.  But I do believe that whether teachers realize it or not their first impression of students can be stereotypical especially when they have years of experience.  Sometimes when you see students that might fit into a certain “category” it is very hard not to judge the next group of students based on some of the same characteristics.

            We can try not to judge students based on how the present themselves because that obviously has no merit over what they are capable of accomplishing.  What have tried to do this semester is watch each of the students so that I could figure out how much they would be able to perform in the classroom.  When I am teaching a lesson I try to call on different students to answer discussion questions so that I can test the students that I think do not believe that they know the information. I have also let the student’s grades speak for them because there have been many students who have preformed well on a test when I honestly did not think that they would but I have also seen students who I thought would perform well fail.  So I have figured out that the best thing to do is let the students show me what they are capable of on their own.