Realized today that it is July- has been, in fact, for nearly two full days- and I have yet to post my final reflections on a June in teacher corps (has it really only been a month?).
My impression:
Upon seeing, face to face, the issues that drew us to MS, certain realities are more immediately clear (enough said), as is the amount of work that will be required. I feel more capable and more directly aware of the problems. The second years have proved invaluable for providing perspective. Listening to stories about what they have encountered and what they have done about it has offered insight into the possibilities for dealing with various issues, illustrated what is effective and what is not, and especially proved that some things are effective, even when we meet with initial resistance.
An opinion about rules:
We have to teach students to think for themselves, not just to follow the rules. Rules should have a purpose, and we should encourage student ownership, not obedience.
An acknowledgement: The people make the program, and go out of their way to make it work.
This is needed, and we'll make it work.
posted by Mike @ 3:00 PM
1 Comments:
I respectfully disagree with your opinion about rules. It will be interesting to see how your philosophy develops as you take on more than 2 students for more than a month at a time, etc. Forgive my skepticism. I do not disagree with your values; obviously teaching children to think for themselves is important. But sometimes natural consequences are way too far removed to be an effective teaching strategy, especially with large groups. I merely disagree with you about priority. You have to provide structure, or there will be none. Without solid structure, there will be little freedom to accomplish complex tasks with a large class. Some second-years (particularly Molina and Cuzo) seem able to teach effectively with very little emphasis on rules, but I believe this is largely due to their highly charismatic personalities, and not a very transferable formula for success. The older and more self-motivated your students, and the less of them you have together, the more leeway you have to give your students freedom to experiment. The more factors stacked against you, however, the more you will (generally) have to rely on strict enforcement of rules in order to accomplish much.
Post a Comment
<< Home