3.28.2007
Reasons why I avoid the lunch room
Ok - so I ventured into the faculty lounge and BAM it hit me AGAIN! So, a little background on me - I was not a very good student in MS or HS. I know it is hard to believe since I am such a geek now, but I was a C/D student. ANYWHO - I am a firm believer that I did not have teachers who taught using multiple intelligences. Atleast I have a better understanding why they did not teach that way. Considering through my undergrad I realized that education has not been studied for very long. HENCE the need for CHANGE in the way we teach - yes I said it CHANGE.... I know it is a dirty word but GIVE IT UP! I struggled through school my WHOLE life and it took alot of failures for me to figure out how to succeed. I think that now we are expected to do alot more to help students succeed, AWESOME! So I say GRRR to those teachers who do not want to change or work harder. Am I alonng with this?
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4 comments:
Sometimes people like to be set in their ways, and they don't want to change. There is a lot of fun in changing classes, and doing things in the unorthodox ways. Teachers, don't want to work too hard, because they are very comfortable in what they are already doing. So I say GRR to those who are too comfortable.
No, you can't get comfortable with teaching. Students attention span is from the minute they walk thru the door to the minute they sit in their seats. If you don't change they way you grab them in the first minute with a 'unique' approach to bringing the lesson, you'll lose them for the next 45 minutes. Change in the way you teach / bring it across is a must!!
It's interesting how we keep trying to figure out how to get the students to pay attention. We resort to all sorts of gimmicks that we think are reaching them. Yet we should recognize that students are learning a wealth of information on their own terms, and it is this recognition that should drive what we do in the classroom. For example, I teach United States History, and my students come with a foundation of knowledge that they've acquired through The History Channel, the Internet, family stories, etc. For awhile I tried to pigeonhole their knowledge into the constraints of the curriculum. I then realized that they were developing the curriculum with what they knew, and it was my responsibility to guide them to resources of knowledge that would expand upon what they already understood. This freed me up to implement tools with which they were familiar and comfortable, and their learning has taken off.
And they did okay on the WKCE.
SBUG you are definitely not alone! I also get annoyed by the teachers who stay stagnant and don't want to put in extra work or try new things. My biggest annoyance is staff meetings where something new is presented and these teachers shoot it down right away without thinking about it or maybe even trying it once before saying it won't work. These are also the teachers who admit that students have changed over the years and they are still teaching the same way. A lot of the time I feel sorry for their students who are still being taught this way.
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