I really don’t have favorites in my head. I like all my students, and, as I said before, am very idealistic about their potential. However, I can be shy towards those who do not reach out to me, or who do not want to be in my class, and this looks like favoritism. My mentor teacher last year thought this was one of my most serious failings, because it is vital that every student feel welcome, and vital that the teacher is perceived as fair.
When I really look honestly, I can see some of my old habits popping out. Or, in some cases, there is a student who is very smart, but dislikes school. I only notice when he is being disruptive, not when he shows excellent mastery of the material. It does bug me when he distracts his friends, who need to work harder, but I certainly don’t dislike him. I think that he thinks I don’t like him, and when I look critically I can see why. I must fix this. I must try to give more incentives (such as mini-presentations, etc) for students like him to prepare for class. He certainly won’t do it for the sake of his grade. I think he might have a C, and he has one of the best understandings of the material in the class. He’s the sort who does really well on tests, but rarely bothers with classwork and homework. And I must be nice to him, and give him more positive feedback.
I am doing better than I did in my student teaching, because I have been making a conscious effort to ask every group of students about non-academic things, but I still have a long way to go.
