Last week one of my classes was difficult to manage. I was dealing with resistance due to distaste for the subject area, loss of attention, group dynamics, lack of understanding and inadequate equipment ( some with no pencil or paper). Although I pushed through, my blood pressure rose and I had passing moments of feeling helpless before this morass of learning obstacles. What to do? The next day, I decided to begin with an upbeat, positive attitude, and an attempt to connect with their experience outside the classroom. The tone changed from resistance to cooperation. Could it be that my demeanour the day before was giving off a distancing kind of aura?
It also occurs to me that I need to address the results of the Multiple Intelligence survey I did with them a month ago. The vast majority are primarily wired for bodily kinesthetic learning. They have got to move and feel engaged with movement, rhythm and reconfiguarations of desks...that sort of thing. This week, I intend to keep the students moving...Your comments?
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Teaching Manifesto Part Two
6. Without standards, we sacrifice our authority at the altar of low expectations. We set standards, but resist standardization. Relevant standards meet diverse needs fairly. Standardization flatlines needs unfairly. As ethical teachers we challenge blind and deranged standardization that heightens the fear of failure and the lowers the bar of excellence.
7. We believe the caring teacher embraces authority and democracy in the classroom. Authority without democratic transfer of power to our students becomes autocratic. Democracy without the guiding wisdom of teacher authority breeds inefficiency and bad power: bullying, factions, unethical teacher silence and the silencing of minorities.
8. We teach to be aware of and alleviate fear. We commit to overcoming our personal fears that disconnect us from our students. We then address learned helplessness, academic performance anxiety, institutional failure and imposed silence through attentiveness and stress-relieving strategies.
9. We teach to the mind and the emotions, to curricular goals and wellness, to analysis and connection. We care by eliciting and listening to our students’ emotional needs as intrinsic to education.
10. We teach to the spirit. We intentionally and boldly open the universe and its awesome features to our students. We create space for awe, curiosity, beauty and personal modeling. We consciously combat the repressive power of moralism, legalism, factism and groupism. As we engage the spirit, we answer our true calling.
7. We believe the caring teacher embraces authority and democracy in the classroom. Authority without democratic transfer of power to our students becomes autocratic. Democracy without the guiding wisdom of teacher authority breeds inefficiency and bad power: bullying, factions, unethical teacher silence and the silencing of minorities.
8. We teach to be aware of and alleviate fear. We commit to overcoming our personal fears that disconnect us from our students. We then address learned helplessness, academic performance anxiety, institutional failure and imposed silence through attentiveness and stress-relieving strategies.
9. We teach to the mind and the emotions, to curricular goals and wellness, to analysis and connection. We care by eliciting and listening to our students’ emotional needs as intrinsic to education.
10. We teach to the spirit. We intentionally and boldly open the universe and its awesome features to our students. We create space for awe, curiosity, beauty and personal modeling. We consciously combat the repressive power of moralism, legalism, factism and groupism. As we engage the spirit, we answer our true calling.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Teaching Manifesto Part One
"The great world, the background, in all of us, is the world of our beliefs. That is the world of the permanencies and the immensities." ~ William James
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1. We cannot split ourselves into our personal lives and our teaching lives. As we are becoming more whole persons, we are able to teach more effectively.
2. What we believe in theory does not transfer directly to what we do in practice. What we do speaks louder than our declared theoretical constructs. Ethical teachers correct their behaviours with good theory and apply good theory to their practice with the understanding that they are progressing through unfinishedness and beyond. Our subconscious beliefs condition our practice more immediately than our conscious beliefs. When our subconscious and conscious beliefs are not in alignment, we are not fully credible in the classroom.
3. Without the ingratiating attitude of gratitude, the thankless tasks of teaching will lead to teaching without heart. Thankful teachers go the distance in bureaucratic school systems. Thankfulness answers knowledge and happiness with the capacity to embrace our students as gifts, and as gifted.
4. We cannot care unless we are convinced of our own self-worth. A caring teacher chooses to let go of power over students. The egocentric teacher needs power over to prop up the system, his reputation, his sense of control. The caring teacher does not need power over to feed the ego.
5. The teacher with authority is fully present to, with and for students. True authority comes from seeing and feeling from the side of the student. Authority slippage happens as soon as we use power over to hold on to it. Power over imposes the way. Authority points the way.
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A Teacher’s Manifesto
1. We cannot split ourselves into our personal lives and our teaching lives. As we are becoming more whole persons, we are able to teach more effectively.
2. What we believe in theory does not transfer directly to what we do in practice. What we do speaks louder than our declared theoretical constructs. Ethical teachers correct their behaviours with good theory and apply good theory to their practice with the understanding that they are progressing through unfinishedness and beyond. Our subconscious beliefs condition our practice more immediately than our conscious beliefs. When our subconscious and conscious beliefs are not in alignment, we are not fully credible in the classroom.
3. Without the ingratiating attitude of gratitude, the thankless tasks of teaching will lead to teaching without heart. Thankful teachers go the distance in bureaucratic school systems. Thankfulness answers knowledge and happiness with the capacity to embrace our students as gifts, and as gifted.
4. We cannot care unless we are convinced of our own self-worth. A caring teacher chooses to let go of power over students. The egocentric teacher needs power over to prop up the system, his reputation, his sense of control. The caring teacher does not need power over to feed the ego.
5. The teacher with authority is fully present to, with and for students. True authority comes from seeing and feeling from the side of the student. Authority slippage happens as soon as we use power over to hold on to it. Power over imposes the way. Authority points the way.
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