After watching the short video on Frank McCourt, I am amazed at how strong his inspiration must be to get through all the obstacles in his life and get to a position of teaching, and even then he chose to teach in low-income areas to be a change in the students' lives. I really like how he said when students are resisting, which is inevitable, he does not go in opposing force and try to establish authority. As he says that is pointless, and instead he goes along with it. That's a good takeaway for me, as teachers have traditionally been portrayed as some kind of authority figure, being all strict and in proper attire, demanding certain behaviour from students and are often seen as the opposing force of the students. I will certainly keep this in my mind whenever I'm inclined to say no. Am I saying no just because I am unwilling to change or accommodate, or is it because saying no is the right thing to do because it would benefit the student from accomodate a certain thing.
It provokes the question of where is the boundary that teachers should set? If students don't like a certain text, I'm sure another one could be used, but if students don't want to learn about fractions, we cannot simply say well sure let's toss it out the window. It would be lovely to hear more from him in the interview where he outlines several scenarios from his experience and that will certainly inform my teaching philosophy.
No comments:
Post a Comment