The GenWe Classroom

                Self-evaluation is important to personal growth. In this course, you have been required to do a self-evaluation and turn it in. It is simple to do a self-evaluation, and then bury it deep within yourself where no one knows you have thought about these things. It is quite another to put your realizations on your sleeve for someone else to see.

                Having our personal thoughts put on display is scary, and makes us vulnerable. Think about your students when you are putting them on a hot seat. It is easy for you to point out things your students are doing wrong, but are you doing it in a way they can learn from?

                Teenagers are emotionally vulnerable because their brains are expanding to incorporate a more exocentric world view, and they have hormones affecting how they interact with this knowledge that the world is a lot bigger than they realized, that their actions affect more people than they realize. It is likely you will make situations worse before they get better from time to time as you master your new role. Continuing to fill out a self-evaluation every day or once a week will help you remember what it feels like to have to admit out loud what you did wrong and need to improve.

                You are more emotionally mature than your students, and if you struggle with it, think about how they will feel. Admitting our mistakes helps us grow, but we often avoid this practice around others. Even if we know deep inside, it is painful to bring it to the surface.

                It will be extremely helpful for your students if you provide a series of forms they can fill out for various situations. Suggesting some self-reflection may help them see a situation differently. Offering to go over the results with them may help them even further. Students should also be able to fill out feedback forms for each other. The forms should be displayed publically to avoid bullying. Inappropriate content in a feedback form can be brought up to the Judiciary Committee (JC), and anything that is beyond what the scope of the constitution can be brought up at class meetings.

                Other types of self-reflection you can encourage the students to do are daily vlogs, blogs, handwritten journal, or log book. The habit of keeping track of day to day activities is a practice that they will pick up from you when they see you updating your guide. Share with them some of the things you observed, and let them know self-reflection should not be something to be afraid of.