Teacher Expectation and Power Teaching

As a teacher I am well aware that I am going to have expectations of my students as they will of me. I think both the students and I should be on a level where we both understand what it is that is expected within our roles. I expect that my students would respect me that same ways that I would respect them, and abide by all of my classroom rules and assignments. I would like to have something similar to a pact that we would all sign in the beginning of the school year, and form like a family environment where the students can all be themselves. With all of this in mind I want to keep it obvious that the level of respect that I expect from my students will not decline while keeping a fun environment. The respect will create most of the comfort and gives students a better sense of trust within the classroom. This will hopefully ensure good learning because the students can then do things like elaborate and talk with one another, and approach others for help with confidence, or approach the teacher with confidence that they can receive the right help without being embarassed. As a whole every teacher has their expectations and we can remember not to keep them too high nor too low.
As far as power teaching is concerned I don't see mtself leaning towards that technique in my classroom. I feel it is not a proper environment to learn or teach in. I do not think competition is the way to go either. While these students are thinking they also know they are competing, and that defeats the purpose of having a train of thought creating less learning from taking place. This may also produce more error because of the fast pace. In the video students were actually showing a lack of thinking or loss of thought and there were quite some interrupions. This does not prove learning took place. I really do not care for it, and most likely will not use it.

Homework

Homework is something I definitely remember as a child. I can recall the nights that I had to stay up and do tedious amounts, and I can recall the times I had homework that I absolutely wanted to do. I liked homewor. I can honestly say it did not bother me, but too much of it became a problem. I feel some teachers go a little overboard on giving homework. Everything not finished in class becomes homework, and then on top of that students get the "real" homework for the day. That is incredibly overwhelming. Students have only so much attention span power to deal with the heavy amounts, and just because there's a lot does not mean they have a good teacher.

I think homework is important in other cases. I think it serves as a brush up period to keep the students mind fresh of the days learning, and as a parent informer allowing the parents to know where exactly their child is in the year. Remember to keep in mind that homework should not be used as a complete assessment because in all factuality we do not always know who completes the homework. It could be the parent for all we know doing the childs homework. This can also cause a raising of standards by the teacher because they think the student is completing this homework, or they can create biases that enhance the classroom environment calling for harder assignments or tests. Homework can sometimes have its goods and bads, but for the most part its use as a formative assessment is doing its job for now.