“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn” – Benjamin Franklin
i could have spent more time getting ready to teach. How about you?
Write about a time when you didn’t take action but wish you had. What would you do differently?
I wish I had spent more time preparing to be a teacher. When I began teaching I had very little experiemce with kids.
It would of been helpful to have more experience coaching, substituting, or something else related to working with kids. I could of started enjoying my career a lot sooner.
Yes it is – a very tough one.
I’ve been wanting to go back to school for it, however there is too much drama. In K-12, it’s the parents, the administration; in the grad school world it’s your peers. I want to get a graduate degree, however I don’t want someone smear-campaigning me just because they disagree with my opinion. I need less drama in my life, not more. Volunteering to assist at the refugee center in town is very rewarding so I stick with that.
The politics can get nasty. I have carved out a nice little niche for myself. My boss comes in twice a year for like 2 minutes if all goes to plan. May I ask where the refugee centter is?
It’s ok. Honestly, from the student foxhole, we could spend more time prepping to be teached!!!
So – again from my foxhole – I’m a lousy student. I have teachers who’s lesson I enjoy and others who I…um, don’t. I’m not a good student bc I kind of flake off on a lot of stuff if I can. Some years from now I will right a blog about how I wish I had whatever’d as a student.
So: I had a history teacher in the past who I had a major academic crush on. That’s not like a sexual crush, but I lived for his lessons. He made the past come alive. I felt so energized in his classes and excited when they came up. I could have spent hours and days and weeks sitting at his feet eagerly lapping up what he taught.
Is that weird?
I mean, I know teachers want students to want to learn, but was I (even more of) a weirdo for getting excited for his lessons. And as I say, it wasn’t some, well, sexual thing, but he made learning awesome, plus I love history. And he fed that passion.
I watched a 20+ episode lecture series on Amazon Prime about the English Tudors/Stuarts bc of him. and read up more on Wikipedia bc of that. And looked for other related series.
He made me (intellectually) aroused and excited an (intellectual) passion in me to learn.
Full disclosure, physically, he was kind of goofy and not sexy. But as someone to spark a young girl’s intellect, he was incredible!!!
And all that is to say, do your students learn to love learning from you or just learn what they need to pass tests?
No that is not weird at all. Kids these days can think it is weird to actually enjoy learning, but I think it is because we make school a lot like prison sometimes. I do a fair amount of lecturing, but it is always a discusion as well. I try to have 3 or 4 fun/innovative activities through the week. For example next week they will make board games to review for the final, stuff like that.
I also stopped grading everything so that kids can enjoy learning more and feel safer taking risks, which has been quite successful. If I can get student buy-in on activities then the learning kind of takes care of itself.
Funny story. I left a fairly long (for me) comment. I guess it didn’t save.
What was it?
It was the one above. For some reason it didn’t show up after I hit reply so I thought it hadn’t saved. I’m glad it did! Great that you are doing things like that with your students. Board games sounds like a really cool idea! I don’t think people realize what a difference having a good teacher can make compared to one who is just going through the motions.
My motto is if I am bored doing it, the students are defiantly bored doing it. It is all about the way one teaches, any subject can be made fun and intriguing with the right approach. Most teachers think students learn only because they are “graded”, but research shows this is simply not true. Extrinsic rewards (grades) only provide temporary motivation. Kids actually love to learn, over assessing, assigning busywork, and such, makes learning a tedious chore that really turns kids off the to the very subjects we are trying to teach them.
Great post! Yes, teaching can indeed be a tough racket. A stressful job involving handling responsibilities of taking care of children, meeting strict deadlines and maintaining good relations with staff. I’m not a teacher myself so I can’t personally speak to these experiences. However, based on my observations, I have come to the conclusion that being a teacher isn’t easy. I have observed my teachers in school struggling to maintain their composure under extreme stress. That being said, I have also seen the positive impact teachers could have on students. Throughout my life, teachers have been role models that have guided me in troublesome times in the right direction.
Your post brought to mind the recent Oscar-winning film “The Holdovers”. It tells the story of a professor with a negative outlook that’s forced to chaperone students during the Winter season. A beautiful movie that I felt you would enjoy since you are a teacher. Here’s why I recommend it strongly:
https://huilahimovie.reviews/2023/11/29/the-holdovers-2023-movie-review/
Your point of view is great on your topic.
from: mrprofessorsdotcom.wordpress.com
Thanks, appreciate you!
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Thought of mine being a blogger
I don’t know how people find my writing my post on different topic.
I don’t know the people who read my post, where are they from, what do the do?
But the most important thing being a blogger is to inspire people to express through writing, to motivate people in their bad time, to move out through their past. I too started blogging to move from my past and express me freely through writing and I suggest people to do so.
from: mrprofessorsdotcom.wordpress.com
Agreed being teacher
wow
Wow as in good or bad?
nice blog. mrprofessorsdotcom.wordpress.com
What are your thoughts on this?