Unfortunately if these blogs have to be academically written, then I have already failed. Whether it be due to lack of talent, or lack of concentration, I don’t think it matters. What does matter, is that my lack of academic intellect is not due to being lazy. Personally I don’t think anyone who does understand absolutely everything they read in the required reading will necessarily make a great teacher, (although I am sure there are many exceptions!), but nevertheless it is the reason I have decided to not pull out of this course, and not get intimidated by those who actually do understand everything. Everything I write here, unless accompanied by references, is from my own personal experience of the last seven years working as a teacher of instrumental music groups in high schools and primary schools in ACT, and also in Stuttgart Germany where my language skills were very basic.
There is so much more to teaching than just being ‘studied up’, as I am sure Wayne is experiencing in this particular scenario number one. Teaching in a classroom, where all the students are of different abilities and levels can be incredibly difficult, if you are trying to cater for every individual’s student’s development. I can also confidently say, that being a teacher, you are a human with one brain, and a brain can not split in two and simultaneously teach two different standards of student at exactly the same time. There is also no escape from being the role of teacher in this situation - the role is fixed.
The teacher’s concern branches from the deep knowledge that the students are there for a purpose – either they ‘have’ to be there, or they ‘want’ to be there. Either way, their purpose IS to be there. Wayne is concerned that if he tries to find a middle ground between the two groups, that the end result will be that the motivated kids will get bored, and the unengaged group will not be inspired to change their attitude. Either way, fear of boredom from the students is in this teacher’s paranoia. He is between a rock and a hard place and is split right down the middle of decision-making. Who does he sacrifice the session for? The ‘motivated’ group or the ‘unengaged’ group?
Creating a positive learning environment in the class, through humor, fun and energy, is the only way I found to get around this, because then, the student’s natural human instincts take over. They above all, want to be INCUDED through CURIOSITY alone. The curiosity can stem from many things, such as loneliness and feeling left out as a kid, to wanting to get inside the teacher’s head i.e. getting to know the content that is being taught. (Of course there will always be those who have behavioural probems, but this is for another blog on classroom control.)
I looked up Wikipedia and found a guy called Jean-Jacques Rousseau. And I would say that he was the one who inspired me most with his quotations.
He believed that ‘education is not concerned with particular techniques of imparting information and concepts, but rather with developing the pupil’s character and moral sense, so that the kid may learn to practice self-mastery and remain virtuous even in the unnatural and imperfect society in which he will have to live. He said that the child must be guided to suffer from the experience of the natural consequences of his own acts or behavior. When he experiences the consequences of his own acts, he advises himself.’ (I don't know how to do the Harvard system referencing, but i did just get that directly off Wikipedia).
As for the history of education, its always amazing how even the most revolutionary students who swear that if they ‘ever become a teacher, they will teach differently from how they grew up’ (eg the British Anglican way), in fact end up just teaching the same stuff again, and relying on that ‘stuff’ alone to arouse the student’s curiosity. I learned that one the hard way that when I taught like this, that many students end up just trying to ‘pass’ their particular subject.
I don’t have a problem with teaching concepts from generations and generations before, but only if I can maintain curiosity in my students - something i want to develop through this course and through the years to come. But if I rely on the concepts and content alone, like I said before, I’ve already failed as a teacher.
