I believe the purpose of being a teacher is to instill the values and ideas that would help support the needs of the student and community. Teaching is not just about supplying information and hoping the student learns something; the approach has to be active. That is to say the teacher should not drill information but a better approach would be to find how information can be absorbed and practiced in meaningful, thoughtful ways. I guess it would be more difficult to determine how best to show how what is taught in class today could be used later today and not just for tomorrow. Sure teaching should be to prepare a student for college courses but it seems it is only after college that a greater impact is expected.
My intention for my classroom is to not teach just facts or theories but I want to have an immediate impact. What exactly that impact is/will be I am not sure? I do know that discussion and interaction between students would be a valuable activity in the classroom. The classroom is a fragment of society and being involved there would hopefully mean being actively involved in the “larger society.”
I have confidence that everybody has potential and meaning in the world and the ability to learn. There are no useless people or knowledge; there is only tragedy in the failure to act. As a teacher you should not discount what a student gets wrong as much as you should cultivate and see the potential in what the student gets right. Getting a 60% on a test should not be seen as failing by 40%. The glass is more than half full and in time it has the potential to overflow.
Giants will repeat with 31-27 win over Patriots.
I completely agree with you that students learn more with active learning. I have been in so many classes, especially in college, where my teachers just talked at me and I remember absolutly nothing from them. Which would probably explain why I could not decide on a major for so long. It is good to teach your students the basics but it is good to make sure they interact with the knowledge that they are gaining.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely agree Alejandro. I think you bring up a good point about not just drilling the information or preparing students for college classes. A student may learn algebra, but if he only knows how to apply the quadratic formula to equations he can't factor and that the vertex of a parabola is -b/2a, he's not going to get too far. The more important thing is the problem solving skills he is going to gain by finding out WHY the vertex is -b/2a. And I don't mean he just needs to know the reasoning behind that fact, I mean that he needs to gain the processing power and critical thinking skills that got him there, because these skills can not only be applied to more advanced math, but can be applied to other situations in life. Knowledge of topics is important, but understanding and application of skills is even more so.
ReplyDeleteIt was not until I decided to become an educator and having to get back to school to do this, did I realize that it was the classes during my initial schooling that involved interaction with fellow students that I learned the most from. It seems that teachers need to get away from the drilling of information into students heads and do more active learning in the classrooms so there students will be successful.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about active education as a key process. I agree that there no stupid or unteachable kids. What I suggest is that the greatest challenge, we all face is a system, that has produced functionally illiterate kids and adults, students who cannot do basic mathematics (let alone applied mathematics like Algebra), and don't know basic state or federal social studies or American Civics, let alone care about any of this. I suggest, like our current Governor, that Social Promotion is one of the societies great failures and has led to some of these problems. So, test scores and assessments are in fact necessary evils, but, not as primary indicators of the system success. I suggest that we need to have a National Set of Standards that have to be met and seriously then plan and enact changes, which can meet these standards when applied at the myriad of local levels and environments.We need to end Social Promotion and let me be controversial here, get away from the mistaken view that college is for everyone. We have to have viable alternatives, vocational training/apprenticeships/military careers/specific industry work-study programs, that prepare people for meaningful employment opportunities that pay well and give lifelong career opportunities.
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