Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Reflectiveness
Being able to reflect on your own teaching style, and learn from your mistakes as well as your victories is very important. If you can't reflect, then you won't improve as a teacher, and you can't stay relevant to the methods that are actually working with the children of the present. I think the problem with some teachers today is that they are teaching with methods they learned before the rapid spread of computers and the internet. They are outdated. In order for students to learn effectively these days, because of the technology that surrounds them in every day life, teachers need to stay practically up to the minute with technology. If teachers don't reflect on their methods and see if whatever they're using is relevant, students won't be able to learn as much.
Authenticity
While being true to yourself and your own personal beliefs is important to the classroom, there will always have to be a line between having your beliefs in the classroom and imposing your beliefs in the classroom. Trying to force a student to see something your way, just because it's your belief is unacceptable.
Despite this, being true to yourself is very important. If some sort of injustice is happening in your classroom, and it's in your nature to stop it, then you would be true to yourself if you did. You would be authentic. On the contrary, if you decided not to stop it from happening, then you would be unauthentic.
Despite this, being true to yourself is very important. If some sort of injustice is happening in your classroom, and it's in your nature to stop it, then you would be true to yourself if you did. You would be authentic. On the contrary, if you decided not to stop it from happening, then you would be unauthentic.
Inventiveness
Inventiveness.
Through the years it has provided us with things all the way from this:
to this:
While one may seem vastly superior to the other, the principle behind them both is something we need to keep our children and students interested in throughout their entire lives. When children are young, their instinct to invent and create something that hasn't existed before runs wild. When I was a child, I was alway trying to invent new things. Today's school system however, has stamped that out of most of our youth by the time they hit middle school. "In order to succeed", we were told, "you need to do exactly these steps, in exactly this order and repeat". If we thought of a better way to do something, we never had a chance to try it out because we were taught that the only right way was the teacher's way, and with any other way, we would fail.
Letting our students be inventive is going to better prepare them for tomorrow's business world. We are no longer a society of factory workers who only need to learn a set of instructions in order to make a living. Creativity and inventiveness are a key component in order to be 'successful' in today's (and tomorrow's) society.
Through the years it has provided us with things all the way from this:
to this:
While one may seem vastly superior to the other, the principle behind them both is something we need to keep our children and students interested in throughout their entire lives. When children are young, their instinct to invent and create something that hasn't existed before runs wild. When I was a child, I was alway trying to invent new things. Today's school system however, has stamped that out of most of our youth by the time they hit middle school. "In order to succeed", we were told, "you need to do exactly these steps, in exactly this order and repeat". If we thought of a better way to do something, we never had a chance to try it out because we were taught that the only right way was the teacher's way, and with any other way, we would fail.
Letting our students be inventive is going to better prepare them for tomorrow's business world. We are no longer a society of factory workers who only need to learn a set of instructions in order to make a living. Creativity and inventiveness are a key component in order to be 'successful' in today's (and tomorrow's) society.
Lecture: Bullying
Jodee Blanco's lecture on bullying at Decorah High School brought up a few memories from my own childhood. I wasn't physically bullied, or called names, but I was ignored and excluded. I still to this day, feel the repercussions of this exclusion, because I find myself asking out of habit: "Do my friends really like having me around? Are they talking to me just because they feel like they have to?" I know it's silly and irrational, because I've made some real and true friends since then, but ever since elementary school, I feel like I have to ask myself that question on a regular basis.
And that question is something that NO child should ever have to ask themselves.
We had workshops on bullying...but only once a year...and only in middle school. Workshops on bullying need to start in elementary school, and continue into both middle and high schools. They need to be more than just a day-long lecture or retreat. Kids will seem completely transformed after a day retreat, just to come back the next day and return to the same old routine. Bullying is a habit (for some students) that needs to be broken. Better yet, it's a habit that needs to be prevented. Anti-bullying and how to positively interact with other people should be intertwined with the school curriculum.
Educating students about diversity, and all of the ways people can be different from each other (not just skin color or religion, but with interests and lifestyles and etc.) will also help get rid of bullying. We as a human race fear the unknown. If someone is different than we are, and we don't understand why they are as they are, we fear them. When we are afraid, we enter defensive mode, and that can lead to bullying behavior.
I really agreed with her tips for how to deal with bullying, some of which are seen in the CNN clip below.
If we can help prevent bullying by educating our children about diversity and how to interact positively with other people in the classroom (along with parents teaching their children at home) from a young age, then drastic measures won't have to be taken to make kids feel welcome and safe in their own communities.
And that question is something that NO child should ever have to ask themselves.
We had workshops on bullying...but only once a year...and only in middle school. Workshops on bullying need to start in elementary school, and continue into both middle and high schools. They need to be more than just a day-long lecture or retreat. Kids will seem completely transformed after a day retreat, just to come back the next day and return to the same old routine. Bullying is a habit (for some students) that needs to be broken. Better yet, it's a habit that needs to be prevented. Anti-bullying and how to positively interact with other people should be intertwined with the school curriculum.
Educating students about diversity, and all of the ways people can be different from each other (not just skin color or religion, but with interests and lifestyles and etc.) will also help get rid of bullying. We as a human race fear the unknown. If someone is different than we are, and we don't understand why they are as they are, we fear them. When we are afraid, we enter defensive mode, and that can lead to bullying behavior.
I really agreed with her tips for how to deal with bullying, some of which are seen in the CNN clip below.
If we can help prevent bullying by educating our children about diversity and how to interact positively with other people in the classroom (along with parents teaching their children at home) from a young age, then drastic measures won't have to be taken to make kids feel welcome and safe in their own communities.
Collaborativeness
Collaborativeness, especially between departments in a school really benefits the students. There were many times while I was in high school that teachers would all assign huge projects or papers that would all be due around the same time (also conveniently around the time of choir or band concerts). Yes, it would be hard for teachers to coordinate perfectly with every other teacher in the building, but teachers' classes that are catered towards juniors should collaborate with each other, and same with the other grades. If that's not a possibility, then teachers should at least be tolerant and understanding about deadlines. If a student has multiple projects all due in one week, they should be able to work with teachers about due dates.
As a future choir teacher, working with other departments will be a big part of my job, because of organizing extra rehearsals before concerts, or pulling students out of classes for tours or out of school performances.
Being able to compromise with other teachers and departments will keep that stress off of the students. There were times in school where I had to satisfy the requirements of two different teachers, even though they didn't coincide with each other very easily. This put me under a lot of stress and I didn't put as much effort as I could have into either project. I think students would put a greater effort into their school work if they knew teachers could be flexible about due dates, or if they were understanding about things like choir, band, orchestra, sports or other extra-curricular events (that they participate in, not just spectate at) that might be important to the students.
As a future choir teacher, working with other departments will be a big part of my job, because of organizing extra rehearsals before concerts, or pulling students out of classes for tours or out of school performances.
Being able to compromise with other teachers and departments will keep that stress off of the students. There were times in school where I had to satisfy the requirements of two different teachers, even though they didn't coincide with each other very easily. This put me under a lot of stress and I didn't put as much effort as I could have into either project. I think students would put a greater effort into their school work if they knew teachers could be flexible about due dates, or if they were understanding about things like choir, band, orchestra, sports or other extra-curricular events (that they participate in, not just spectate at) that might be important to the students.
Passion
Having a passion for what you teach is absolutely essential if you want your students to succeed.
One reason I believe why I am so passionate about choral music is because the choral program at my high school was so strong. My theory about why the program is so strong at my high school is that the directors care so much about choral music, and about the students.
The pivotal moment in my passion for choral music happened during my experience in the Minnesota All-State Women's choir the summer before my senior year of high school. At that time, I already had been in my school's top for a year, and I loved singing, but I was missing the "little something extra" that turns an interest into a passion. That little something extra came midway through the week of our All-State camp. During a rehearsal, we were running a song, "Tutto il di piango", which our conductor Vijay Singh (not the golfer) had composed. At one part near the end of the song (around 5:30 in the video below) every single person in the choir started bawling. Uncontrollably. Even after the song ended. Nobody could explain it. Even Vijay Singh was noticeably shaken up. For the rest of rehearsal then, he explained to us how he chose to compose the song as he did, why he chose that text (the part mentioned translates to "because living pity and my faithful aid see me on fire and do not help me"...and the rest of the song is almost as depressing, I promise you), and it was clear just how passionate he was about his profession.
To this day, I have never had as much of a 'musical mountain top moment' (as my director in high school says) as I did that day in rehearsal. Part of me is convinced that it was because of his personal investment. He put himself out there to be vulnerable, because of his passion for the music. My high school choir director was convinced that most of those mountain top moments should happen in rehearsal, and I didn't really believe her until that day.
One reason why Benjamin Zander is so successful in this lecture is because he's so passionate about what he's teaching his audience. He is absolutely convinced that everybody in the world loves classical music, and that most people just haven't discovered it yet.
One thing I've thought about doing in my classroom after watching this video, is have my students listen to choral music. Good choral music. Most high school students don't make a habit of listening to good choral music. They might listen to a CD of their own choir, if that option is available, but they don't go searching it out. For some, it is only a matter of not knowing where to start. There is so much choral literature out there, and I find it difficult to sift through the junk to find the gems. Giving students somewhere to start- a certain choir, or a specific composer could really help to jumpstart their passion.
Perhaps instead of looking at the classroom as a classroom and myself as a teacher, I can think of it as an arena to share my passion with students, some of who are there for the music and others there either because their friends are in choir, or because they think it will be an 'easy A'. Perhaps I'll be able to transform their lives as my teachers have transformed mine.
One reason I believe why I am so passionate about choral music is because the choral program at my high school was so strong. My theory about why the program is so strong at my high school is that the directors care so much about choral music, and about the students.
The pivotal moment in my passion for choral music happened during my experience in the Minnesota All-State Women's choir the summer before my senior year of high school. At that time, I already had been in my school's top for a year, and I loved singing, but I was missing the "little something extra" that turns an interest into a passion. That little something extra came midway through the week of our All-State camp. During a rehearsal, we were running a song, "Tutto il di piango", which our conductor Vijay Singh (not the golfer) had composed. At one part near the end of the song (around 5:30 in the video below) every single person in the choir started bawling. Uncontrollably. Even after the song ended. Nobody could explain it. Even Vijay Singh was noticeably shaken up. For the rest of rehearsal then, he explained to us how he chose to compose the song as he did, why he chose that text (the part mentioned translates to "because living pity and my faithful aid see me on fire and do not help me"...and the rest of the song is almost as depressing, I promise you), and it was clear just how passionate he was about his profession.
To this day, I have never had as much of a 'musical mountain top moment' (as my director in high school says) as I did that day in rehearsal. Part of me is convinced that it was because of his personal investment. He put himself out there to be vulnerable, because of his passion for the music. My high school choir director was convinced that most of those mountain top moments should happen in rehearsal, and I didn't really believe her until that day.
One reason why Benjamin Zander is so successful in this lecture is because he's so passionate about what he's teaching his audience. He is absolutely convinced that everybody in the world loves classical music, and that most people just haven't discovered it yet.
One thing I've thought about doing in my classroom after watching this video, is have my students listen to choral music. Good choral music. Most high school students don't make a habit of listening to good choral music. They might listen to a CD of their own choir, if that option is available, but they don't go searching it out. For some, it is only a matter of not knowing where to start. There is so much choral literature out there, and I find it difficult to sift through the junk to find the gems. Giving students somewhere to start- a certain choir, or a specific composer could really help to jumpstart their passion.
Perhaps instead of looking at the classroom as a classroom and myself as a teacher, I can think of it as an arena to share my passion with students, some of who are there for the music and others there either because their friends are in choir, or because they think it will be an 'easy A'. Perhaps I'll be able to transform their lives as my teachers have transformed mine.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
R-E-S-P-E-C-T (find out what it means to me)
Respect: How do you define respect? How does it look in the classroom? What is the impact of respect or lack of respect in classrooms? How is respect best established in a classroom environment?
Respect and tolerance are two very similar ideas. Both essentially make the point that a person should let another person believe or think whatever they choose to believe without unnecessary repercussions. This especially applies if your own beliefs and thoughts vary in any way from the other person. Respect, I think goes a bit farther than tolerance, because when you respect someone, you acknowledge their worth as a person, and say that their ideas are important in some way or another. Tolerance, while it can also be implied that some people acknowledge the sense of worth of others who hold different opinions, it is not necessary. You can tolerate things without respecting them. I can tolerate my brother eating his food with his mouth open, but I don't respect it. I do however tolerate as well as respect other people's religious beliefs, sports teams preferences, tastes in music, movies or books, among others. It is very important for us (as future teachers) to learn to respect, and not just tolerate our students' beliefs and preferences. By respecting our students (and having them respect us in return) the level of trust and learning in the classroom will be at an optimal level. Respect also should be shown through a persons actions.
Respect in a classroom can look like many things. Students respecting a teacher could look like: Students raising their hands when they want to speak and not talking out of turn, students paying attention or, if they choose not to, they do it in a way not to draw attention to themselves. A teacher respecting students could look like: not making fun of a student if he or she can't do something very well, really listening to what students have to say in class, or getting to know a student a little better than strictly who they are in your one class.
Learning goes much smoother in a classroom if respect between both the teacher and the students is present. If either side doesn't have respect for the other, learning can become a lot more difficult. For example, if one of the students doesn't feel like the teacher respects them, he or she might choose to act out, in order to feel noticed by the teacher, maybe to gain their approval. That same student, if they had been shown respect, might not have acted out and disturbed the classroom. A student that is not respected might go on to hate school or learning, and maybe in not-so-extreme cases eventually drop out (which, while not eliminating the chances for a good career or a good life, diminishes those chances immensely). The same student, shown respect, could go on to love learning, and keep it up for their entire life. People rarely comprehend that one little thing we do can affect another's life in a big way.
Respect is best established in a classroom initially by the teacher. If the students feel disrespected right at the beginning of the school year, or at the beginning of a course, they might not respect the teacher in return. Then trust does not build up between student and teacher, which is essential for learning. I feel like I really need to trust a teacher or a professor when they are teaching me something. If I don't, I'm not sure I can believe everything that they're telling me. If the teacher respects students as soon as they walk through the door, and accepts them for who they are and what they think, then students will be more likely to respect them in return.
Respect and tolerance are two very similar ideas. Both essentially make the point that a person should let another person believe or think whatever they choose to believe without unnecessary repercussions. This especially applies if your own beliefs and thoughts vary in any way from the other person. Respect, I think goes a bit farther than tolerance, because when you respect someone, you acknowledge their worth as a person, and say that their ideas are important in some way or another. Tolerance, while it can also be implied that some people acknowledge the sense of worth of others who hold different opinions, it is not necessary. You can tolerate things without respecting them. I can tolerate my brother eating his food with his mouth open, but I don't respect it. I do however tolerate as well as respect other people's religious beliefs, sports teams preferences, tastes in music, movies or books, among others. It is very important for us (as future teachers) to learn to respect, and not just tolerate our students' beliefs and preferences. By respecting our students (and having them respect us in return) the level of trust and learning in the classroom will be at an optimal level. Respect also should be shown through a persons actions.
Respect in a classroom can look like many things. Students respecting a teacher could look like: Students raising their hands when they want to speak and not talking out of turn, students paying attention or, if they choose not to, they do it in a way not to draw attention to themselves. A teacher respecting students could look like: not making fun of a student if he or she can't do something very well, really listening to what students have to say in class, or getting to know a student a little better than strictly who they are in your one class.
Learning goes much smoother in a classroom if respect between both the teacher and the students is present. If either side doesn't have respect for the other, learning can become a lot more difficult. For example, if one of the students doesn't feel like the teacher respects them, he or she might choose to act out, in order to feel noticed by the teacher, maybe to gain their approval. That same student, if they had been shown respect, might not have acted out and disturbed the classroom. A student that is not respected might go on to hate school or learning, and maybe in not-so-extreme cases eventually drop out (which, while not eliminating the chances for a good career or a good life, diminishes those chances immensely). The same student, shown respect, could go on to love learning, and keep it up for their entire life. People rarely comprehend that one little thing we do can affect another's life in a big way.
Respect is best established in a classroom initially by the teacher. If the students feel disrespected right at the beginning of the school year, or at the beginning of a course, they might not respect the teacher in return. Then trust does not build up between student and teacher, which is essential for learning. I feel like I really need to trust a teacher or a professor when they are teaching me something. If I don't, I'm not sure I can believe everything that they're telling me. If the teacher respects students as soon as they walk through the door, and accepts them for who they are and what they think, then students will be more likely to respect them in return.
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