What I've Learned This Year by Mr. McClung
Mr. McClung's blog post "What I've Learned This Year" was great to read. I wish more teachers would write a review of their first years as teachers and give advice. As someone who (hopefully) will be teaching in a classroom in the next couple years, I'm open to any kind of advice that is out there.
Mr. McClung said a few things that I can already tell will be a problem for me when I am a teacher. Being flexible is the first one that I can identify with. In my life, I usually picture a way I want an event to go and then expect it to happen that way. I've learned that that is not what usually happens. This will be even more true when you have children involved in your plans.
In the fall, I hope to begin working a few days a week with Marietta Johnson's Organic School in Fairhope. I think this experience will benefit me so much, especially when it comes to being flexible. The organic school's whole philosophy of teaching is that you let the students explore what they want to learn. When I sat in on a couple classes last fall, it surprised me how much the students had discussion with each other and how eager they were to find out solutions to problems they created. Almost everything was led by the students and the teacher was just there to guide them. It was a really interesting experience and I can't wait to go back.
The last section of Mr. McClung's post said to "never stop learning." Teachers should always want to strive to become better teachers. This reminds me of a post I found through Twitter, A Plethora of Technology: The Graduation Speech we Should be Giving in September This post discussed what we should be telling students who are entering high school. In the end, don't teachers just want their students to want to learn? If my students are exploring their own questions and following up on lessons outside of class, I'll feel like I'm doing my job.
Hi Tyler
ReplyDeleteI can really relate to your post when you talked about flexibility in the classroom. I also think that your involvement with the Organic School in Fairhope will be an interesting learning experience. The setting you described reminded me a lot of the classrooms that we have learned about in this course with the basis of it being more interactive learning where the teacher serves as a guide, not a dictator. Good luck on that endeavor!! Great post!
I would like to see every teacher write a reflection for every year they teach! And that hope extends to you!
ReplyDelete"I've learned that that is not what usually happens. This will be even more true when you have children involved in your plans." How true! How true! And the Organic School will prove it to you. A great experience awaits you!
"In the end, don't teachers just want their students to want to learn?" YES!
"If my students are exploring their own questions and following up on lessons outside of class, I'll feel like I'm doing my job." And so will I. Go for it!
Tyler,
ReplyDeleteI especially liked that you included your experience at Marietta Johnson's School of Organic Learning. Here is a link to theSchool Website. I checked it out and it looked incredible. How did you get involved? What made you want to go back? DO they readily accept student volunteers?
I am sure I have told you before, but it really does pay to incorporate personal experiences in your posts. That is a great way to add to our collective pool of knowledge.
Way to go!
Anthony