Quote: "What we're all striving for is authenticity, a spirit-to-spirit connection." - Oprah Winfrey
Authenticity seems to me to be one of the most valuable traits of a teacher. We've all had or known of a teacher who obviously didn't really care what was going on, despite trying to pretend they did. Personally I would rather a teacher obviously be apathetic about the subject and students than try to pretend they do care. Of course the best thing is if they really are interested in their subject and students, but if not, don't fake it, especially if you're bad at faking.
To a certain extent it's easy to fake emotions. We do it all the time. When someone asks "How're you?" a typical response is "Good! And you?" despite what may or may not be going on in our lives at that time. Most of the time the questioner doesn't really care that much about exactly how the other person is feeling, they're just trying to be polite. Both people realize this, probably subconsciously, and reply according to society's preset "rules."
When it comes to teacher...I guess this is true, but only to a certain extent. Favoritism is in this category. In my limited experience, it's impossible to not develop more affection for some kids than for others. The big thing is not showing them that. Like the textbook said, not showing favoritism is one of the top signs of a good teacher, and showing favoritism is one of the top signs of a bad teacher. You have to be willing to accept that you're going to have favorites, and then just don't let it influence you.
Self-reflection can tie into knowing what your limits are. Going back and thinking about what I've done, at least to some extent I can analyze whether or not I would have believed me, or whether I really believed what I was saying. Then I can focus on the next time in that kind of situation whether or not I'm being real or if I'm just sort of shrugging it off. Like in class when we were talking about trust, I think authenticity is a great way to build trust. If a kid can sense that you really do mean what you're saying, all the time, positive or negative, you'll get much better results, I think.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Week 2: Compassion
Wow, we're already up to week two. Almost done with the second full week of classes. Crazy! Well, the theme for this week's blog entry is 'compassion.' The quote is by the Dalai Lama, who said "If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." From my over nineteen years of experience, this tends to be true. One of my good friends tends to judge people and hold grudges...and is often grumpy or irritable. My parents don't know how I put up with her - I guess I've just known her long enough!
A teacher's compassion can make a difference in a student's life. Even if it's a student with a stable home life who gets plenty of affection from family, it can still make an impact. I hate to refer back to my schedule problems again, but that's one of the moments when I had a teacher show me compassion.
I remember I had just gotten out of a meeting with my adviser. Looking back, I realize he did try to help me, but with a school of 1800 or so and three or four counselors, I'm sure it was really hard for him to try and deal with everyone's problems. However at that point, I just felt like he was giving me no guidance. All I wanted to do was go home and cry and get my mom to fix everything. I'm one of the lucky people who cries out of frustration, and that's what it was at that point. I wasn't full-on crying, but I'm sure my eyes were red and watery. I was standing outside the counselors' office area, all red-eyed and unsure what to do, when my pre-calc teacher came along.
I've never been a huge fan of math, even though I've always been good at it, thanks to my dad's genes, but I've always tried to have a good attitude about it. Mr. Conrad was a really fun teacher who managed to make the class itself fun, even if the homework was boring. That being said, I still didn't really know him that well. I'd gone in before or after school a few times to ask about homework, but that was it. When he saw me semi-crying, though, he stopped and took the time to ask me what was wrong. Chances are he had a class he was supposed to get back to, but instead he took the time to stop and talk to me. That little bit of kindness enabled me to pull myself together instead of breaking down out of frustration. We only talked for five or ten minutes, but it did make a difference. He helped me see that it wasn't quite the end of the world.
A teacher's compassion can make a difference in a student's life. Even if it's a student with a stable home life who gets plenty of affection from family, it can still make an impact. I hate to refer back to my schedule problems again, but that's one of the moments when I had a teacher show me compassion.
I remember I had just gotten out of a meeting with my adviser. Looking back, I realize he did try to help me, but with a school of 1800 or so and three or four counselors, I'm sure it was really hard for him to try and deal with everyone's problems. However at that point, I just felt like he was giving me no guidance. All I wanted to do was go home and cry and get my mom to fix everything. I'm one of the lucky people who cries out of frustration, and that's what it was at that point. I wasn't full-on crying, but I'm sure my eyes were red and watery. I was standing outside the counselors' office area, all red-eyed and unsure what to do, when my pre-calc teacher came along.
I've never been a huge fan of math, even though I've always been good at it, thanks to my dad's genes, but I've always tried to have a good attitude about it. Mr. Conrad was a really fun teacher who managed to make the class itself fun, even if the homework was boring. That being said, I still didn't really know him that well. I'd gone in before or after school a few times to ask about homework, but that was it. When he saw me semi-crying, though, he stopped and took the time to ask me what was wrong. Chances are he had a class he was supposed to get back to, but instead he took the time to stop and talk to me. That little bit of kindness enabled me to pull myself together instead of breaking down out of frustration. We only talked for five or ten minutes, but it did make a difference. He helped me see that it wasn't quite the end of the world.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Week 1: Respect
So, welcome to my Ed Psych blog. We have assigned topics every week, and this week's is respect, in case you hadn't guessed by the title. On our little dispositions sheet, there's a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson. He said, "The secret of education lies in respecting the student."
One of my favorite teachers in high school was the orchestra teacher, Dr. Chiarello. I suppose that's not too surprising, seeing as I'm currently on the track to becoming an orchestra teacher myself, and even if I wasn't, I would still be heavily involved in orchestra, but still. He knew, sometimes too well, how to have fun in class, but he was nearly always able to pull us all back into the music when it was time to get back down to business. My sophomore year, I realized that the next Spanish class (Spanish IV) was only offered during the time that our best orchestra practiced. It severely stressed me out. Orchestra and Spanish had always been my two favorite classes (now look where I am; a music ed and Spanish double major!). The thought that I might not be able to take one of them was horrible. I talked to Dr. Chiarello about it, nearly in tears from frustration. It would have been easy for him to just tell me to take orchestra - I was the orchestra's best violist after a kid a year older than me switched to violin for school. But instead, he acknowledged that orchestra and Spanish were both really important to me. He suggested I take the Spanish class, then aide in the freshman orchestra. I wasn't sure how well it would work out, but it seemed like the best option.
That turned out being a wonderful decision. Of course there were days that I was bored stiff, but many days I would go run errands for him, or I'd take an individual or small group out in the hallway to work on their music. I got to be really close to that class; some remain some of my closest friends today. That small group experience is really what made both Dr. Chiarello and me start thinking about music ed. During my senior year, while I was student mentoring at a middle orchestra, Dr. Chiarello told me I should really think about becoming an orchestra teacher. He had seen how I was with the freshman, and heard me telling stories about my seventh graders (not the Edison seventh graders - MY seventh graders). The idea had sort of been floating around in my mind, but it never really settled until he mentioned that idea to me. If he hadn't let me make my own decision and respected my priorities back sophomore year, I probably wouldn't be at Luther as a music ed major.
While overall my high school experiences were good, and filled with good teachers, I did have one teacher who caused my mother and one of my friends' mothers to label him a "brick wall." My sophomore year (huh, a lot seemed to happen that year...), I took Accelerated Chemistry. I've never been that big of a science buff, but I've always enjoyed the classes, so I wasn't really looking forward to the class or dreading it. A few people I knew were in it too, so I didn't figure it could be that bad. And overall it wasn't, at least for most of first semester. Sure, the teacher was boring, and said "ok?" at the end of nearly every sentence, and I wasn't the best at it, but I had a low A going, and was satisfied. Then came a test at the end of first semester. I never had big time issues with tests before, but this one was totally different. I usually glance at the clock every now and then just to see how I'm doing, and this one was not good. About ten minutes from the end of class, I just started rushing through, trying to at least get an answer down for everything. By the time we had to pack up, I at least had something for most of the questions, but there were two or three on the back I didn't get to, and the bottom half of the front that I had rushed through.
I got it back, and got an 84%, or maybe it was an 86%. Regardless, it was one of the lowest test scores I had ever received at that point. I wasn't very happy with it since I hadn't finished the test and most of the answers on the front had points off because I forgot labels and such in my rush to finish, but I was resigned to it. But then I heard that other people had gotten extra time because they hadn't finished half the test. Yet even though I definitely had some questions left blank, I wasn't offered extra time. I told my parents about it, and my mom actually went in to talk to the teacher for the first time ever. Needless to say, as I mentioned earlier, he was a brick wall. He didn't even act like he was comprehending what we were saying. My mom does NOT like being ignored, so she arranged a meeting with the vice-principal. By that point I didn't really want to go talk to more people, but she didn't want blatant inequality to slide. It turned out that nothing really got done for me, but at least my mom went to talk to someone.
Respect requires acknowledging that even though someone might be younger or less experienced, they still have thoughts and emotions and can contribute valuable things. Many good teachers talk about how they learn as much from the students as the students do from them. If they respect the students, the students will respect them back. My experience has been that when respect is mutual, it's a lot more genuine. I respected, and still respect, Dr. Chiarello a lot more than I respect Mr. Bechard, simply because I felt like Dr. Chiarello respected me and tried to do his best to help me to do my best. Obviously teacher-student respect is different than respect between equals, simply because the teacher does have to have authority. Even when I was working with the freshman and had some degree of authority, I was still definitely a student.
Well, I think that's enough for this week. I may have gone a bit overboard, but it's amazing how easy it is to write about something you care about, as opposed to an analysis or response to something. Too bad that research paper last year didn't flow as easily...
One of my favorite teachers in high school was the orchestra teacher, Dr. Chiarello. I suppose that's not too surprising, seeing as I'm currently on the track to becoming an orchestra teacher myself, and even if I wasn't, I would still be heavily involved in orchestra, but still. He knew, sometimes too well, how to have fun in class, but he was nearly always able to pull us all back into the music when it was time to get back down to business. My sophomore year, I realized that the next Spanish class (Spanish IV) was only offered during the time that our best orchestra practiced. It severely stressed me out. Orchestra and Spanish had always been my two favorite classes (now look where I am; a music ed and Spanish double major!). The thought that I might not be able to take one of them was horrible. I talked to Dr. Chiarello about it, nearly in tears from frustration. It would have been easy for him to just tell me to take orchestra - I was the orchestra's best violist after a kid a year older than me switched to violin for school. But instead, he acknowledged that orchestra and Spanish were both really important to me. He suggested I take the Spanish class, then aide in the freshman orchestra. I wasn't sure how well it would work out, but it seemed like the best option.
That turned out being a wonderful decision. Of course there were days that I was bored stiff, but many days I would go run errands for him, or I'd take an individual or small group out in the hallway to work on their music. I got to be really close to that class; some remain some of my closest friends today. That small group experience is really what made both Dr. Chiarello and me start thinking about music ed. During my senior year, while I was student mentoring at a middle orchestra, Dr. Chiarello told me I should really think about becoming an orchestra teacher. He had seen how I was with the freshman, and heard me telling stories about my seventh graders (not the Edison seventh graders - MY seventh graders). The idea had sort of been floating around in my mind, but it never really settled until he mentioned that idea to me. If he hadn't let me make my own decision and respected my priorities back sophomore year, I probably wouldn't be at Luther as a music ed major.
While overall my high school experiences were good, and filled with good teachers, I did have one teacher who caused my mother and one of my friends' mothers to label him a "brick wall." My sophomore year (huh, a lot seemed to happen that year...), I took Accelerated Chemistry. I've never been that big of a science buff, but I've always enjoyed the classes, so I wasn't really looking forward to the class or dreading it. A few people I knew were in it too, so I didn't figure it could be that bad. And overall it wasn't, at least for most of first semester. Sure, the teacher was boring, and said "ok?" at the end of nearly every sentence, and I wasn't the best at it, but I had a low A going, and was satisfied. Then came a test at the end of first semester. I never had big time issues with tests before, but this one was totally different. I usually glance at the clock every now and then just to see how I'm doing, and this one was not good. About ten minutes from the end of class, I just started rushing through, trying to at least get an answer down for everything. By the time we had to pack up, I at least had something for most of the questions, but there were two or three on the back I didn't get to, and the bottom half of the front that I had rushed through.
I got it back, and got an 84%, or maybe it was an 86%. Regardless, it was one of the lowest test scores I had ever received at that point. I wasn't very happy with it since I hadn't finished the test and most of the answers on the front had points off because I forgot labels and such in my rush to finish, but I was resigned to it. But then I heard that other people had gotten extra time because they hadn't finished half the test. Yet even though I definitely had some questions left blank, I wasn't offered extra time. I told my parents about it, and my mom actually went in to talk to the teacher for the first time ever. Needless to say, as I mentioned earlier, he was a brick wall. He didn't even act like he was comprehending what we were saying. My mom does NOT like being ignored, so she arranged a meeting with the vice-principal. By that point I didn't really want to go talk to more people, but she didn't want blatant inequality to slide. It turned out that nothing really got done for me, but at least my mom went to talk to someone.
Respect requires acknowledging that even though someone might be younger or less experienced, they still have thoughts and emotions and can contribute valuable things. Many good teachers talk about how they learn as much from the students as the students do from them. If they respect the students, the students will respect them back. My experience has been that when respect is mutual, it's a lot more genuine. I respected, and still respect, Dr. Chiarello a lot more than I respect Mr. Bechard, simply because I felt like Dr. Chiarello respected me and tried to do his best to help me to do my best. Obviously teacher-student respect is different than respect between equals, simply because the teacher does have to have authority. Even when I was working with the freshman and had some degree of authority, I was still definitely a student.
Well, I think that's enough for this week. I may have gone a bit overboard, but it's amazing how easy it is to write about something you care about, as opposed to an analysis or response to something. Too bad that research paper last year didn't flow as easily...
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