Can You Teach Me How To Teach?
I've been wandering around asking teachers "Can you teach me how to teach?" Which didn't start as a survey, but it ended up as one. Every single person had a different answer, and I am delighted by their subtleties.
A misorganized series of notations follows
--Knowledge of your subject is necessary but not sufficient
--To dismiss the science of teaching and learning is to be a fool, but to think that it is not more than the science is a greater error
--The best way to learn how to teach is to teach
--Blindness in the processes of communication will be your downfall
--Do not mistake teaching for learning, or speaking for teaching
--Ask questions, find answers; above all else never cease to engage the brain with the task of adapting methods
--If you do not have a good sense of self in which to weather bizarre attacks on your every aspect, they will eviscerate you, they will eat you alive.
--Apathy is an intangible enemy. What motivation can you offer when your scope for discipline ends with the bell and bottoms out at failing grades?
--Money is a bitch. Beware this inevitable fact in all things. Money is a bitch, and time is a luxury it cannot buy you.
--You need an endless well of patience to survive intact (if ever a teacher loses their temper with a student, oh what chaos can ensue)
There were more things to be had in the wandering discussions I stole from their time, but these seem to be either agreed upon or hugely important to some people (without, perhaps, being important to everyone). Pretty much everyone made me feel welcome to come and observe, but as one of them cogently put it "You had twelve years of that." It was a good point, but not sufficient reason to dismiss the value of observational learning as a means to abstract the process of teaching from the subject matter at hand.
I've got evening classes starting next Monday. This implies all sorts of things about the distribution of my time and energy, but my sneaking suspicion is that my credit-earning activities will take second place to my learning.
A misorganized series of notations follows
--Knowledge of your subject is necessary but not sufficient
--To dismiss the science of teaching and learning is to be a fool, but to think that it is not more than the science is a greater error
--The best way to learn how to teach is to teach
--Blindness in the processes of communication will be your downfall
--Do not mistake teaching for learning, or speaking for teaching
--Ask questions, find answers; above all else never cease to engage the brain with the task of adapting methods
--If you do not have a good sense of self in which to weather bizarre attacks on your every aspect, they will eviscerate you, they will eat you alive.
--Apathy is an intangible enemy. What motivation can you offer when your scope for discipline ends with the bell and bottoms out at failing grades?
--Money is a bitch. Beware this inevitable fact in all things. Money is a bitch, and time is a luxury it cannot buy you.
--You need an endless well of patience to survive intact (if ever a teacher loses their temper with a student, oh what chaos can ensue)
There were more things to be had in the wandering discussions I stole from their time, but these seem to be either agreed upon or hugely important to some people (without, perhaps, being important to everyone). Pretty much everyone made me feel welcome to come and observe, but as one of them cogently put it "You had twelve years of that." It was a good point, but not sufficient reason to dismiss the value of observational learning as a means to abstract the process of teaching from the subject matter at hand.
I've got evening classes starting next Monday. This implies all sorts of things about the distribution of my time and energy, but my sneaking suspicion is that my credit-earning activities will take second place to my learning.