A moment of truth
My mind is spinning! Between US History discussions, Grading Pilot discussions, 21C discussions, and SAC discussions, I have so many thoughts going though my head. I have decided to use this blog as a place to sort through all of those topics.
First of all, I remember having felt like this once before. It was sometime in college, when it suddenly dawned on me that everything I was learning and had ever learned fit together like a big jigsaw puzzle of life. Suddenly, French class connected to literature class, and that connected to calculus, and so on. I feel like that now - everything I want to be as a teacher is connected to technology, improved feedback to kids, curriculum revision, daily interactions with colleagues and students, writing assignments, etc. It also occurred to me that it all goes back to a philosphy of education. We had to write one of those during graduate school, and if I can find it, I would like to read it. I think that I have become so bogged down in the day-to-day requirements of teaching that somehow I lost a bit of the big-picture focus I used to have. That and I am on too many committees, clearly.
So here is a start to my new philosophy of education.
Why I teach
I teach because it matters. Every day I have the chance to enable someone to see how the past is intricately connected to the present and the future. I have the opportunity to help a student see the broader implications of what he or she is learning in school. I have the ability to demonstrate a new technology to someone who might one day improve upon that technology. My job is to expose people to new ways of thinking, and to challenge perceptions. I actually get paid to do that! I also get to make connections with people, and use those connections to help them better understand why the world is the way that it is. Perhaps they will then wonder at the ways in which the world could be different. I also have the opportunity to talk to young people about integrity, and how the only part of the world that we can actually control is the way that we act in it. And, perhaps, once in a while, I help kids see that they can accomplish more than they ever thought that they could. Hmmmmm . . .
First of all, I remember having felt like this once before. It was sometime in college, when it suddenly dawned on me that everything I was learning and had ever learned fit together like a big jigsaw puzzle of life. Suddenly, French class connected to literature class, and that connected to calculus, and so on. I feel like that now - everything I want to be as a teacher is connected to technology, improved feedback to kids, curriculum revision, daily interactions with colleagues and students, writing assignments, etc. It also occurred to me that it all goes back to a philosphy of education. We had to write one of those during graduate school, and if I can find it, I would like to read it. I think that I have become so bogged down in the day-to-day requirements of teaching that somehow I lost a bit of the big-picture focus I used to have. That and I am on too many committees, clearly.
So here is a start to my new philosophy of education.
Why I teach
I teach because it matters. Every day I have the chance to enable someone to see how the past is intricately connected to the present and the future. I have the opportunity to help a student see the broader implications of what he or she is learning in school. I have the ability to demonstrate a new technology to someone who might one day improve upon that technology. My job is to expose people to new ways of thinking, and to challenge perceptions. I actually get paid to do that! I also get to make connections with people, and use those connections to help them better understand why the world is the way that it is. Perhaps they will then wonder at the ways in which the world could be different. I also have the opportunity to talk to young people about integrity, and how the only part of the world that we can actually control is the way that we act in it. And, perhaps, once in a while, I help kids see that they can accomplish more than they ever thought that they could. Hmmmmm . . .
posted by Crosby at 8:47 PM
4 Comments:
I really want to comment on this, but I can't think of anything to add to this except "Wow!" Oh, and I hope that Abby someday gets to have you for a teacher.
Karl just gave you such a compliment; I second it. I know that if we can create those connections both socially and within content for our students, we have impacted them. I have always felt so blessed to be a teacher, as well because in this process of teaching literature, grammar, writing, and reading, I become a better person because of my students. Bravo Amanda!
I already wrote this once to Roger, but I might have actually enjoyed history had I been taught by teachers like you...
We sure have come a long way from our Bandit days on the soccer field!
I agree with Karl, WOW! I hope that more of us (including myself) can reach this point.
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