In the article What I've Learned This Year, by Mr. McClung, there are many helpful topics. Mr. McClung first brings up the importance of keeping the students interested in your lectures. Instead of trying to please your boss and superiors we as teachers should focus on the students and how they react to the lectures. I believe that this is something that is extremely important to remember when we get our first classroom. Many get lost while trying to capture the attention of their superiors rather than making their lessons "student centered". Another important topic is communication. Communicating with others in the work place and with the students is pertinent to keep the work place pleasant. I myself have experience some work place drama and for the longest time I couldn't figure out why one of my co-workers had such a problem with me, after communicating with her about the issue it was then resolved. It was a very minor issue but could have turned into something terrible had we not sat down and discussed it with one another.
Another one of the many topics discussed in this article is how to be reasonable with the goals that you set for your students. Mr. McClung says that "we forget that we are dealing with children". Also, we have to remember that they are not perfect. When teachers set their goals to high for the student and the student fails to meet that goal then both the student and the teacher are disappointed. We need to maintain reasonable expectations for students so that they aren't let down in the end. This is difficult because we want our students to go above and beyond and believe that they can accomplish anything. Finally, Mr. McClung says that we should not be afraid of technology. I believe that so many adults are afraid of technology and this could be because they have never been taught how to use any of it and are intimidated. I understand the feeling. Before taking EDM 310 I had no clue of how edit a video or even how to post one. There are so many great innovative technologies today that teachers have access to and they should be utilized.
Cinda, that's exactly what I was thinking. Teachers shouldn't worry about their superiors so much, they should focus more on the children that they are teaching. I think this gets lost, especially as teachers worry about making sure the get tenured. I also thought it was a good point about not getting disappointed if your students don't reach the goals you have set for them. It's great to set high goals, even necessary I think, but you have to continue to be supportive regardless.
ReplyDelete" We need to maintain reasonable expectations for students so that they aren't let down in the end." But we also must "set the bar high" as we learned from Dr. Pausch. Sometimes these two objectives are in conflict. What then?
ReplyDeleteLast week Mr. McClung posted his third annual reflection. I think they get better and better. It will take only 5 minutes or so to read the 2010-2011 What I Learned This Year. I highly recommend it!
I agree that teachers should focus their lessons on the students. Teaching is for the students so it only makes sense for them to be the center of the lesson. One thing we must remember as educators is to motivate our students so they can achieve the goals that are set. If they do happen to fail, we have to be willing to help them back up.
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