"Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real." - Thomas Merton
Admitting you're wrong is hard. It's bad enough to admit to yourself that you're wrong, but to admit you're wrong publicly, or to get something wrong in front of a class is worse. I know I struggle with that a lot, so I don't give specific answers in class nearly as often as I might otherwise. Any kind of discussion or opinion-based something is ok, because I'm willing to have my mind changed. But I hate being flat-out wrong about something I thought I was right about.
It's kind of funny that we're supposed to write about the difference between humility and confidence and how you reconcile the two since we had a mini-discussion about this a few weeks ago on Monday night. In my opinion, confident humility (humble confidence?) is about being confident in what you know and what you believe, but acknowledging that you're not infallible and some people know more about some things than you do, or maybe ever will. There is absolutely nothing wrong with confidence, as long as it's not cockiness or arrogance. As a teacher, you have to be confident in your subject. There's nothing worse than a teacher who obviously doesn't know what he/she is talking about.
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Resilience
"In order to succeed people need a sense of self-efficacy strung together with resilience to meet the inevitable obstacles and inequities of life." Albert Bandura
I think the biggest thing that can be done to prepare teachers for the difficulties in the profession is by getting them in schools as early as possible and as often as possible. That's one thing my mom has commented on. She was a music ed major, but she didn't get into the schools until her senior year, so she didn't realize she didn't want to teach until then, and then it was pretty much too late. It's really good that Luther gets people in the school so early.
I think to a certain extent the ed programs at schools should be more challenging. The old saying about how those who can't do, teach is too accurate some places. As I said earlier, I think Luther does a good job, but the ed programs should be at least as difficult as any other program, if not harder. You not only have to understand your concentration, you have to be able to get others to understand it.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Week 8
Free topic! Whoo! I'm going to feel weird if I don't start out with a quote, so I went and found one.
Education ... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.
- G. M. Trevelyan
This completely ties into what Tony Wagner talks about all through The Global Achievement Gap. We're worried too much about the "what" and not about the "how" or "why." With all the information available at the click of a button via the internet, memorizing information by rote so you can spew it out really doesn't serve any purpose. Instead, you need to know how to find the information you need, decipher what's good and and what's not, and synthesize everything together.
You have to try to teach toward what skills are needed in the workplace today. As Wagner says in the beginning of his book, employers can teach the technical skills. It's the creative/critical thinking and questioning that needs to be taught, or rather retained. Children's imagination needs to be encouraged and grown. Too often imagination gets squashed out of kids because of too much testing and not enough encouragement.
TBC!
Education ... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.
- G. M. Trevelyan
This completely ties into what Tony Wagner talks about all through The Global Achievement Gap. We're worried too much about the "what" and not about the "how" or "why." With all the information available at the click of a button via the internet, memorizing information by rote so you can spew it out really doesn't serve any purpose. Instead, you need to know how to find the information you need, decipher what's good and and what's not, and synthesize everything together.
You have to try to teach toward what skills are needed in the workplace today. As Wagner says in the beginning of his book, employers can teach the technical skills. It's the creative/critical thinking and questioning that needs to be taught, or rather retained. Children's imagination needs to be encouraged and grown. Too often imagination gets squashed out of kids because of too much testing and not enough encouragement.
TBC!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Efficacy
"Children cannot be fooled by empty praise and condescending encouragement...ego identity gains real strength only from wholehearted and consistent recognition of real accomplishment, that is, achievement that has meaning in the culture." - Erik Erikson
This summer at camp, specifically in my two weeks with my own group at the "big camp," I had a couple girls who didn't really want to do many of the activities. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of having 6 and 7 year-olds shooting BB guns and bow/arrows, but that's what some of the activities were, so that's what we did. I had a couple girls who didn't think they could do it at all, but I said they all at least needed to try. I never made anyone do it twice if they didn't want to, but I wanted them all to try at least once. Archery definitely went a LOT better than BB guns, but it might have been a bit disheartening for them that I couldn't even hit the target at BB guns. Everyone tried though, and that was the important part.
It's a lot harder to convince someone they can do something if you can't. With archery, I could at least usually hit the target. I still have yet to hit a target with a BB gun though. I could demonstrate that archery was possible, at least. As a teacher, it's important to believe in yourself and your abilities. Experience is probably the best way to become more confident. The more often you are successful, the more sure you will be that you can be successful again. Pretty much everyone has had a teacher who obviously isn't confident and isn't sure what exactly they're supposed to be teaching. Sometimes it's more about knowledge of material, but sometimes it's about how to act in front of a class. Going in, first year of teaching, you just have to know that you'll make mistakes, but that you'll also have successes. It's all about balance.
This summer at camp, specifically in my two weeks with my own group at the "big camp," I had a couple girls who didn't really want to do many of the activities. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of having 6 and 7 year-olds shooting BB guns and bow/arrows, but that's what some of the activities were, so that's what we did. I had a couple girls who didn't think they could do it at all, but I said they all at least needed to try. I never made anyone do it twice if they didn't want to, but I wanted them all to try at least once. Archery definitely went a LOT better than BB guns, but it might have been a bit disheartening for them that I couldn't even hit the target at BB guns. Everyone tried though, and that was the important part.
It's a lot harder to convince someone they can do something if you can't. With archery, I could at least usually hit the target. I still have yet to hit a target with a BB gun though. I could demonstrate that archery was possible, at least. As a teacher, it's important to believe in yourself and your abilities. Experience is probably the best way to become more confident. The more often you are successful, the more sure you will be that you can be successful again. Pretty much everyone has had a teacher who obviously isn't confident and isn't sure what exactly they're supposed to be teaching. Sometimes it's more about knowledge of material, but sometimes it's about how to act in front of a class. Going in, first year of teaching, you just have to know that you'll make mistakes, but that you'll also have successes. It's all about balance.
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