According to Stephen Brookfield, "We teach what we like to learn and the reason many people go into teaching is vicariously to reexperience the primary joy experienced the first time they learned something they loved."I have to agree with Brookfield. I am a prime example that God has a sense of humor. I hated high school....and where do I go every day....you guessed it...to high school. I did not experience the primary joy of learning something I loved until college....but when I did...it made such a difference in my life that I knew right then and there....that I had to share it with high schoolers. You see, high school should have been a time of wonderment for me...but it wasn't...so I want to change that in the minds of my own students. I want them to remember things from high school fondly...and thoroughly. I don't just teach by the book....I am a firm believer that life lessons are the greatest tool there can be. I am a storyteller by nature. I love weaving a good tale together and capturing an audiences attention....and holding it in the palm of my hand. I am a stand up comedian at times....my kids love my antics....these are the things they will remember long after conjugating Spanish verbs has faded. My job as a teacher is to give my students wings...so they can fly...and give them delight in learning. I too want to reexperience the primary joy...every single day....I teach what I love....I teach kids....and I am blessed.
4 comments:
Beautiful, simply beautiful! What an inspiration you are!
Hi Karen, I saw your comment over at Susan's blog (This Day) and that you teach Spanish. So I hopped over to say hi. No I don't teach Spanish, but I'm learning it :-) We moved to Argentina almost nine months ago. I have a great Spanish teacher and she's helping me slowly but surely be able to communicate with all the great people we're meeting. I sometimes get very frustrated with how slow it seems to be going, but then I look back and see how far I've come. Que cosa! Entonces estoy alegre :-)
Youare the kind of teacher that I wished I had had every period of every day during high school. Oh, I had some GREAT teachers, most of whom are gone, and I still think of them with deep fondness. On the flip side, today I do not have a great love for social science simply because I had such boring teachers. These were usually coaches and back then, and maybe even now, the only thing they thought about was athletics. If more teachers had your attitude the profession would jump to the highest. There is more to teaching than learning facts from books
Keep going, my friend. You are definitely on the right track.
By the way, see if you can help that teacher across the hall from you :)
What an awesome teacher you are. Hope you're appreciated! Got my flip-flops at www.douglaspaquette.com And I love them!
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