This past week I attended some professional development that
made me reflect upon the practice of teaching.
It reminded me of when I attended some professional development in the
past when the presenter put up their power points. I struggled to see the words and raised my
hand a couple of times to ask them to read them. After a while I just gave up and truly
stopped listening to what was being presented.
I am a person who truly loves learning but this totally turned me off to
the presentation.
I wonder how often this happens in our classrooms. Not that the students cannot see our power
point but that somehow, we are not connecting with them. That despite their efforts to tell us what
they need we just continue to go on teaching the way we want and after a while
just like I did they start tuning us out.
I often hear teachers complaining how did students not know this I just
went over it in class, when instead we should be asking ourselves how I can
teach this differently so that all my students can understand it.
When you talk with the best teachers you quickly see that
they have outstanding relationships with students. That these teachers realize that everyone is
fighting a battle that they know nothing about.
These great teachers try to uncover those battles and realize that the
roots of resilience are relationships.
Often asking students “how is your day going? Is there anything I can do to make it
better?” gives you a chance to connect.
My last thought about education is have we lost our
way. It seems that the drive-in
education is get good grades, go to a good college, get a good job and make a
lot of money. I wonder would more
students be motivated if the mantra was, take a variety of courses to figure
out what you like, go to college to cultivate that passion, get a job that
matches your passion and help make the world a better place.
Often when you talk about making the world a better place it
seems like an impossible task. Take one
minute to watch these two guys make a difference ( video). When teachers teach with passion, heart and
soul you get behaviors that were show in the video.
As always I appreciate your feedback.
Stephen Ryan American Govt. 441-2
ReplyDeleteI belive that some teachers are set in theirs ways of teaching because that is what works for them. There ways might work for them but not the students and this is a problem. They are not there to educate themselves. They are teachers to help educate the students. Teachers need to keep refreshing there teaching methods to better fit the class they are educating. I belive if this is done that more people will find what they love to study and go out into the world and make it a better place.
I believe that some teachers assume that their ways of teaching has grown onto the kids since the beginning of he year. When in reality most students struggle in the beginning of the year and never truly catch up with the teachers habits.
ReplyDeleteThat is a truly moving video that made me very emotional. It's rare to see two young men making a difference like that. It inspires me to want to do the same things for others.
- Vincent Young
Steve and Vince thanks for taking the time to respond. I agree with both of you that teachers need to be flexible in how they teach and be responsive to students needs. I also loved the video and it reminded me that it is the 1,000 little things that make a difference
ReplyDeleteTeaching well is an incredibly hard thing to do. You must engage, educate, and inspire at the same time. Too often the educate is how teachers are judged.
ReplyDeleteThe reality is for someone to truly gain knowledge that is meaningful they need all three engagement, education, and inspiration. In our current system the education is delivered orally or through reading the inspiration comes from grades and the engagement is through attendance policies.
The education aspect is fine orally as long as the teacher is a skilled orator, the problem here usually lies with the textbook and students disinterest in reading them.
The inspiration aspect is clearly far from perfect, but no feasible alternatives have been shown to work across whole societies: educating a vastly diverse group of people all with complex motives. The reason for this is the economic principle of scarcity: we don't have enough teachers to tailor a style that fits every student.
The worst is engagement. I think getting to students to actively engage and care about learning is the hardest and also most crucial part of any educational institution. Right now they main form seems to be to require students to not skip or be late and use participation points to reward them.
The best way I believe to solve this problem is increase teacher pay to a level that encourages smart people to pursue these careers and make them hard to get kind of like an engineering or law degree. Then smart people will teach other people and it will becomes a virtuous cycle.
-Susan's prom date