Who I am as a teacher….
Hhhhmmmm….I have to say this is a toughy. I honestly am not sure WHO I am as a teacher just yet. I think I know who I WANT to be, but I’m still working out the details. When I think about what kind of teacher I will be once I finally reach that step in my life, I mostly look back to those who have made an impact in my own life; I ask myself what it was they did to reach me. The first person that comes to mind was an English teacher I had at A&M who loved Latin. That man knew the Latin origin of any word you threw at him. What was so inspiring was how excited he got just talking about it. I looked forward to that class everyday (and it was an 8 AMer, so that’s a feat) because his excitement boiled over to the rest of the class. Everyone laughed and talked and wanted to be a part of the discussion. I think this is an important factor of my future teaching philosophy. I want to be so excited about a subject and have so much fun teaching it that my students cannot resist being excited also. This brings to mind one of my favorite quotes: “Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.” Maybe it could be modified to say, “Those who bring the excitement of learning into the lives of other….”
Another teacher whose methods had an impact was Mr. Rowe, another A&M professor who taught literature of the sea. His main goal was always to get us, the students, involved. We would discuss a book for awhile, and then Mr. Rowe would have some activity for us to participate in that brought to light some important aspect of our reading. I remember one class when we were reading Mutiny on the Bounty. We had been talking about the 15 or so men abandoning ship to survive in a dinghy for weeks and how much food they had. To convey to us the extreme hardship of the situation, Mr. Rowe brought rope to class and laid it out on the floor to form the shape and exact size of the dinghy in the book. He then called up 15 students to stand inside the “boat” and proceeded to hand out our rations of food, the same amount as those in the book, in plastic bags. Some had an old moldy cracker, others crumbled pretzels and still some, well, who knew what was in there. We then had to stand in the dinghy, almost nose to nose, with our baggy of food to last a week, and discuss the book for the rest of the class period. Man, did I feel sorry for those poor guys in the book once class was over. To this day, I think that was one of the coolest classes I’ve ever taken. I think this would be another main goal of my teaching philosophy. To get students involved. To bring to light aspects of a book (or whatever we are studying at the time) that are often overlooked as unimportant. I want to inspire curiosity and eagerness to learn.
I’m sure these are philosophies that every teacher strives for. As I’m still learning about teaching, I’ve got a long row to hoe. But I hope someday I will be one of those teachers, like the ones I remember from my education, about whom a student will say, “Man, she rocked!”
Hhhhmmmm….I have to say this is a toughy. I honestly am not sure WHO I am as a teacher just yet. I think I know who I WANT to be, but I’m still working out the details. When I think about what kind of teacher I will be once I finally reach that step in my life, I mostly look back to those who have made an impact in my own life; I ask myself what it was they did to reach me. The first person that comes to mind was an English teacher I had at A&M who loved Latin. That man knew the Latin origin of any word you threw at him. What was so inspiring was how excited he got just talking about it. I looked forward to that class everyday (and it was an 8 AMer, so that’s a feat) because his excitement boiled over to the rest of the class. Everyone laughed and talked and wanted to be a part of the discussion. I think this is an important factor of my future teaching philosophy. I want to be so excited about a subject and have so much fun teaching it that my students cannot resist being excited also. This brings to mind one of my favorite quotes: “Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.” Maybe it could be modified to say, “Those who bring the excitement of learning into the lives of other….”
Another teacher whose methods had an impact was Mr. Rowe, another A&M professor who taught literature of the sea. His main goal was always to get us, the students, involved. We would discuss a book for awhile, and then Mr. Rowe would have some activity for us to participate in that brought to light some important aspect of our reading. I remember one class when we were reading Mutiny on the Bounty. We had been talking about the 15 or so men abandoning ship to survive in a dinghy for weeks and how much food they had. To convey to us the extreme hardship of the situation, Mr. Rowe brought rope to class and laid it out on the floor to form the shape and exact size of the dinghy in the book. He then called up 15 students to stand inside the “boat” and proceeded to hand out our rations of food, the same amount as those in the book, in plastic bags. Some had an old moldy cracker, others crumbled pretzels and still some, well, who knew what was in there. We then had to stand in the dinghy, almost nose to nose, with our baggy of food to last a week, and discuss the book for the rest of the class period. Man, did I feel sorry for those poor guys in the book once class was over. To this day, I think that was one of the coolest classes I’ve ever taken. I think this would be another main goal of my teaching philosophy. To get students involved. To bring to light aspects of a book (or whatever we are studying at the time) that are often overlooked as unimportant. I want to inspire curiosity and eagerness to learn.
I’m sure these are philosophies that every teacher strives for. As I’m still learning about teaching, I’ve got a long row to hoe. But I hope someday I will be one of those teachers, like the ones I remember from my education, about whom a student will say, “Man, she rocked!”
posted by JulieS at 5:06 PM
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