School Dreams
Like clockwork, every year I start to dream about school a few weeks before the first day in late August. Guess it is my brain’s way of getting ready for the beginning of school.
If you are an educator, have you ever had this particular dream? In the dream you are trying to teach a class but the kids are being TOTALLY unresponsive. You are running into a brick wall. It’s the educational counterpart to that common dream in which you’re trying to run but discover your legs are moving awfully slowly, as if you are held back by some unseen force. Your frustration with what’s going on in the classroom builds and builds, but your students also seem to be being held back by something. The things you are trying with your students just don’t work. Students are doing off-task things because they are mentally lost, bored, or uninvolved, and these add up to an educational anarchy. Deep in your soul you know there has to a better way to reach them.
Waking up, it’s a reprieve to realize it was only a dream. But this dream has had a basis in reality at times. It’s uncomfortable to recognize that we’ve all been there at one time or another - the realization that the kids we teach just aren't getting it, and that there just has to be a better way.
The purpose of my work is to allow educators to explore other ways students can learn. The way students learn can dictate not only how well they learn but also what they learn. The process can become a part of the product.
As a side note, I read that when military personnel make a career transition to teaching, they are surprised by the lack of continuous schooling teachers do through out the year to improve their skills. In the military, people are almost always going through training. I think that some of the reasons educators don’t are due to the pressures for our time and our attention we constantly face. Unlike lawyers, doctors, policemen or businessmen, we are almost always with our clients (students) throughout the working day. In those times without our students, we are conferring with other professionals, planning, evaluating, setting up, cleaning up, etc. etc.
I hope you find these postings are worth the time and attention you so graciously are allocating; ‘worth it’ in terms of discussing how we help students to learn in the best ways possible.
Like clockwork, every year I start to dream about school a few weeks before the first day in late August. Guess it is my brain’s way of getting ready for the beginning of school.
If you are an educator, have you ever had this particular dream? In the dream you are trying to teach a class but the kids are being TOTALLY unresponsive. You are running into a brick wall. It’s the educational counterpart to that common dream in which you’re trying to run but discover your legs are moving awfully slowly, as if you are held back by some unseen force. Your frustration with what’s going on in the classroom builds and builds, but your students also seem to be being held back by something. The things you are trying with your students just don’t work. Students are doing off-task things because they are mentally lost, bored, or uninvolved, and these add up to an educational anarchy. Deep in your soul you know there has to a better way to reach them.
Waking up, it’s a reprieve to realize it was only a dream. But this dream has had a basis in reality at times. It’s uncomfortable to recognize that we’ve all been there at one time or another - the realization that the kids we teach just aren't getting it, and that there just has to be a better way.
The purpose of my work is to allow educators to explore other ways students can learn. The way students learn can dictate not only how well they learn but also what they learn. The process can become a part of the product.
As a side note, I read that when military personnel make a career transition to teaching, they are surprised by the lack of continuous schooling teachers do through out the year to improve their skills. In the military, people are almost always going through training. I think that some of the reasons educators don’t are due to the pressures for our time and our attention we constantly face. Unlike lawyers, doctors, policemen or businessmen, we are almost always with our clients (students) throughout the working day. In those times without our students, we are conferring with other professionals, planning, evaluating, setting up, cleaning up, etc. etc.
I hope you find these postings are worth the time and attention you so graciously are allocating; ‘worth it’ in terms of discussing how we help students to learn in the best ways possible.
posted by Rich Levine | 1:22 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home