Thursday, November 20, 2008
Tom Sawyer is the man!
First off, I want to say I love Tom Sawyer and his tactics. He is a genius. He tricks his friends into doing work for him. His friends did not leave regretting it; they enjoyed the work and most likely grew from it. It brought an enjoyment to something that almost all people think is miserable work. Toms acts are much like teaching. Teachers must find away to bring enjoyment to the class room which is almost always found to be a place difficult to have fun. I do believe the main point of this chapter is to convey the importance for a teacher to encourage an active classroom. In result, the students will be encouraging learning to themselves and eachother. But this does not mean that teachers can sit back and observe. This is a very difficult task for a teacher. I think it is more difficult to teach creatively with tactics like Tom Sawyer that encourages genuine enjoyment than it is to teach through a power trip of influencing fear and respect. As we all know the more difficult way almost always pays off.
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9 comments:
I agree with you Colin. It is sad how many teachers want to take the easy way out and not engage their students in an active and fun classroom. As I was reading through this chapter, I was thinking of how I want my future classroom to be. I think by engaging our students and showing them that what they're doing could be fun, we will feel more rewarded in the long run. I know I feel more of a reward when I work hard on something. If I take the easy way out, I feel bad about it. Why should teachers take the easy way out on their students' educations?
I agree with you, Alyssa. I have had teachers that really are apathetic when it comes to teaching. Why get into the profession if you're not going to bother making the learning experience fun and rewarding for your students. I think that teaching requires a passion and a real desire to change someone, and not everyone has that. I think about how i want my classroom to be as well, and it so happens that it is a lot like yours. I want to make it an environment where it is fun, and new ideas are contributed to the learning process. I want to go home everyday with the rewarding feeling that teaching should bring. A feeling that yeah, the work may be hard, but when you reach even just 1 student, you know that student will have changed because of you.
I also agree that the way Sawyer is teaching is a great idea. It is the teachers job to teach but, it is the students job to learn. Students cannot rely on the teacher to do all the work for them and that is why getting students active from the beginning is so important. If teachers do everything for their students then they aren't really teaching them anything. We need to be bold as teachers and maske our students stand out.
This chapter also made me think about my future teaching tactics. I think it is better to do your best at teaching then taking the easy way out. Even though it might be more work the end result would be much more fulfilling. I also understand that following Tom Sawyer might not always work considering his crazy ideas, I do, however, feel that being creative can come in handy in the classroom no matter what grade level you are teaching.
Although completely repetitive, i must agree with everyone's comments. This chapter gave insight as to what a teacher can bring to the table to enable the students growth and expanding their knowledge that much further. Leading students into a direction in which the teacher helps them grow will essentially bring forth the individuality of the student, thus create their own personal experience within the classroom. This chapter made me realize how important it is to stay away from a conforming, stagnant, boring lecture-based classroom but to actively engage my students and to create a dialogue to receive feedback.
I find it kind of funny that Probst correlates teaching English with painting a fence, but I get the idea behind it... anyway I agree as well with you guys that if you decide to take the easy way out, which may people choose to do, then you end up doing a disservice to your students and to yourself. How are you supposed to grow as a teacher when you slack off and don't try and furthermore how are your students suppose to grow if they don't have a effective teacher? I don't think that you should be too engaged as a teacher though. It's kind of like Probst analogy with the weight lifters where if you, the teacher, always shows the student how to lift weights then they will never get bigger and its only when you let them take control is when they get bigger.
I think because speech and talking comes second nature to us (since it is something we are engaging in from infancy), this is the reason why teachers fail to include the practice of discourse. It is something we all do. Like Probst describes how small talk is generated about the weather while standing in an elevator, the same thing happens with students in and outside the classroom. However, I agree that English classes need to devote a certain amount of time to teaching discourse, and instructing students how to better articulate their thoughts into speech.
I think this is why I have faith that we will all be successful teachers. The kinds of teachers that inspired us to want to become teachers.
Creativity and engagement are two key factors to success in the classroom. Not only that, if we instill these values and activities at an early age (high school level, obviously) the skills learned by these students will carry on into college, and will inevitably cause more success for this student in the college environment.
I feel that is ONE of the most important aspects of teaching at the high school level-preparation for the real world. I've learned from experience, but this chapter definitely also gives examples of how to effectively prepare students to be successful additions to any classroom. All of this while using fun, creative, and active techniques. It IS possible!
Agreeing with all previous comments, I believe that part of our responsibility and calling as teachers is place the ownership of learning on our student's shoulders as much as they will let us.
As Probst discusses, Tom Sawyer knew how to get his lazy, uninvolved buddies off of their porches and to the unpainted fence "with a little modeling and a lot of manipulation. As a result, his friends were coerced into believing that they "wanted to paint, could paint, and would paint."
I think that we can take a very important lesson from these lines, and that is the role of enabling our students to be as involved in their learning as we can get them. As many have already discussed, this means creating an interesting, fun, and active classroom environment where students can not only enjoy themselves and their learning, but empower themselves as well. I know that when I have the opportunity to write about something I am passionate about or something that I am interested in, I can take that assignment and run with it, making it my own and glorying in the success and learning experience which that assignment has brought.
Let us provide the same opportunities for our students to love learning and find personal fulfillment and satisfaction in their discoveries.
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