“Teaching involves making an immense number of decisions, and all these decisions have an impact on how students will learn, how they will treat one another, and what the classroom atmosphere will feel like” (Shevin, 99).
This is such a wonderful quote! The sense of building community is obviously not limited to the classroom. The atmosphere or “feeling” of a community is crafted by the members, but as a teacher it is my responsibility to lay the foundation. Classrooms should feel safe, where children can be free to learn and take chances without consequence. I want to create an atmosphere with clear expectations and trust. They can expect that each of their opinions is valid and will be respected in my classroom not only by me, but their peers as well. I’m sure there are numerous creative methods of accomplishing my goal, and I cannot wait to get started.
Speaking of creativity…
“We must use our imagination, she writes, to apply concepts to things. ‘This is the way we render the world familiar and therefore manageable” (Greene, 35).
Our class discussed last night the concept of imagination and the arts, and their role in the classroom. Other cohort members expressed that they did not feel they were artistic. It’s a similar assumption I made about myself initially. However, looking deeper I would like to assume there is potential for more. I have taken dance classes, and art in the past. As a child I loved to draw. I do not seek it out as an adult habitually, but I can be optimistic about my ability to participate in and inspire creative learning. In response to the question: “What would homework look like if it were not 47 worksheets”, I appreciated solutions such as using math in cooking, time, shopping, or even video games. Given my lack of personal experience as a teacher, I would imagine one challenge would be making sure the child is learning. Not all children understand the lesson immediately, even after working on it in class that day. Homework is strenuous but personally that was how I have learned throughout my education. I’m not willing to dismiss the idea of “no homework”, but rather examine it more closely. How do we show that homework is effective? Is it ethical to remove homework, experimentally, to prove one way or another?
I think the use of art is open to interpretation. What is art really? Does it have to conform to a certain media or can it be one of the many ways we show creativity in our teaching. Whether its the use of a group project or getting children to work with each other instead of turning to the dreaded "worksheet" for results. I think the ability to deviate from the text and still learn the information from it becomes an art.
ReplyDeleteI really like you last thought about the art of teaching- finding ways of meeting learning requirements outside of testing/worksheets is indeed an "art" or skill I hope to master!
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