Teaching Interest
I have often said--vehemently, in private and in public--that I'm basically teaching grade-school skills, and that I don't WANT to teach grade school, that I am not TRAINED to teach grade school. Add to that the toxic environment I teach in every day, and I end up making myself sick with stress and discontent.
But then I think about the maybe half-dozen kids I have really been able to reach, the ones who want to learn so badly that they will fight (sometimes literally) to learn what I have to teach them.
When I think of these students, I realize that I do love TEACHING. It's the baby-sitting I can't stand. And that I'd teach underwater basket-weaving if a student wanted to learn it badly enough.
In college, most students quickly learn that the subject is less important than the professor. In other words, if the professor is good, you'll love the class, regardless of the subject.
In high school, the kids don't have a choice in what teachers they get, and the teachers don't have a choice in the students they get.
I'm not really teaching English. I'm teaching--or trying to teach--the ability to get interested in learning. Maybe my professors at Michigan State University said a thing or two about that. I'd have to check my notes, because I was most interested in learning how to teach English. The majority of my classes were structured around teaching English, anyway. I know for damn sure I never took a class called "How to teach enthusiasm for learning." There was that ONE classroom management class, which didn't really prepare me for Chicago AT ALL. (Most of my own personal enthusiasm for learning came from my parents and my loving and caring home environment, and I certainly can't directly affect that for any of my students).
And anyway, if the profs at MSU did say anything about that, I probably let it go right by me, because (in my "I've taught English for five years at the college level already what do I need this for?" hubris) I was focused on English. And I learned a lot of great strategies and techniques for teaching English, strategies that work wonderfully when the students are even half-attentive and half-interested. And I've got some students who want to learn so badly they will risk starting a fight in telling some loud-mouthed jackass to shut up and be quiet. So for them, my stuff works.
The real hat trick, of course, is teaching kids how to want to learn. And I'll be damned if anyone has ever come up with a consistent and reliable way to do that. I used to think it had to do with the way I present my subject. Now, I'm not sure at all anymore.
But then I think about the maybe half-dozen kids I have really been able to reach, the ones who want to learn so badly that they will fight (sometimes literally) to learn what I have to teach them.
When I think of these students, I realize that I do love TEACHING. It's the baby-sitting I can't stand. And that I'd teach underwater basket-weaving if a student wanted to learn it badly enough.
In college, most students quickly learn that the subject is less important than the professor. In other words, if the professor is good, you'll love the class, regardless of the subject.
In high school, the kids don't have a choice in what teachers they get, and the teachers don't have a choice in the students they get.
I'm not really teaching English. I'm teaching--or trying to teach--the ability to get interested in learning. Maybe my professors at Michigan State University said a thing or two about that. I'd have to check my notes, because I was most interested in learning how to teach English. The majority of my classes were structured around teaching English, anyway. I know for damn sure I never took a class called "How to teach enthusiasm for learning." There was that ONE classroom management class, which didn't really prepare me for Chicago AT ALL. (Most of my own personal enthusiasm for learning came from my parents and my loving and caring home environment, and I certainly can't directly affect that for any of my students).
And anyway, if the profs at MSU did say anything about that, I probably let it go right by me, because (in my "I've taught English for five years at the college level already what do I need this for?" hubris) I was focused on English. And I learned a lot of great strategies and techniques for teaching English, strategies that work wonderfully when the students are even half-attentive and half-interested. And I've got some students who want to learn so badly they will risk starting a fight in telling some loud-mouthed jackass to shut up and be quiet. So for them, my stuff works.
The real hat trick, of course, is teaching kids how to want to learn. And I'll be damned if anyone has ever come up with a consistent and reliable way to do that. I used to think it had to do with the way I present my subject. Now, I'm not sure at all anymore.
posted by Christopher at
7:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home