I stumbled upon this video this morning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12ZRuM8UtDA
It is titled "Student Goes off at Teacher for Lack of Commitment in Teaching - Duncanville, Texas".
Essentially a student is leaving/getting kicked out of class and he is yelling at the teacher telling her her job is to get people excited about what they are learning, and not to hand out packages all the time, and to actually do her job.
I feel like this is a no brainer, obviously the student is correct. This teacher should learn how to teach.
So many students just hate school because they find it boring. It is hard to engage an entire class, but it is not impossible. If this teacher is just handing out packages of information, obviously the class isn't going to be excited or engaged. If the teacher even attempted to stand at the front of the room to teach, then maybe she wouldn't even find her own job so boring.
I am tired of all of these teachers who are really shitty. The fresh out of teachers college teachers who just got their BEd because they majored in a subject like English and they have nothing else to do. It drives me nuts. I like the system in Norway- they encourage or insist that teachers have Masters in Education.
The BEd should not take 1 year, it should be at least 2 years.
Of course with experience, these new teachers can improve. But I can tell, if my teacher doesn't like what they are doing, I am not going to like what they are doing. Sometimes teachers will blatantly say they hate that unit or lesson they are teaching.
You need to be passionate about what you are teaching. If you aren't actually passionate about a specific class you are teaching, you need to use your mind to figure out how to make it more exciting.
The other day a teacher told me they hate teaching Civics. MAKE IT EXCITING. It doesn't have to be like "Okay so theres the executive, judicial and legislative branches of government, now take down this note", make it exciting! It's kind of hard to make lessons like that exciting, but make it into a game somehow. Or even when you do teach the more "boring topics", they can be fill in the blanks or notes, but then make something else fun.
I think that teachers need to not be embarrassed and need to step out of their comfort zones as well. Act crazy or silly, the kids love it!
I think that 3 of the most underrated teaching techniques are:
1. Incorporating physical activity into it somehow. Especially when reviewing information before a test or an exam. Honestly, it may be super corny, especially for high school students, but I am in grade 12 and although I'd probably think it was "lame" at first, if you can get everyone involved, it'd be fun. What do I mean by "physical activity"? I mean like obstacle courses where some of the obstacles are questions to do with the material. The other thing is when you are teaching a long boring lesson, ask everybody to stand up and stretch or stand up and do jumping jacks. Or even having a dance party or something stupid. It may be lame, but if you keep doing it repeatedly, eventually everyone will be into it.
2. GO OUTSIDE. A lot of teachers think going outside can be a distraction, but if the weather is nice, the sun will actually help them. If you can incorporate the outdoors into your lesson with metaphors, that would help too. The only way it is a distraction is if there are other classes around doing more interesting things like gym class. Your students aren't going to start chasing birds or sprinting the track... they'll be focused and thankful you left the cement walls of your class.
3. Discussions. I know that discussions happen a lot, but it's not just for grade 11 and 12 students who know what they are talking about. You need to transfer your passion for a topic to your students. If you are talking about a boring topic like the legislative, executive and judicial branches, have them write an opinion statement and then have students share them and start a conversation about it. Creating memories and having activities like discussions and debates will keep everyone involved and help them remember what you are teaching. In classes like math where it is hard to really have class discussions, you need to split people into smaller groups and give them an equation to work on together--- that they don't know how to solve, and they work together to solve it.
You need to let the student figure out things on their own.
With the case of Jeff Bliss and the teacher... well that teacher really does need to learn to teach. Even if that class is something where you need a lot of "textbook" work with worksheets and booklets and packages, you can still make it fun. My individuals and families in a diverse society class in grade 12 had a lot of textbook reading and questions, but discussions can come very easy in that class, I remember the teacher had us do a lot of activities as well.
Teachers need a better education so they can learn how to teach people to learn.
It is titled "Student Goes off at Teacher for Lack of Commitment in Teaching - Duncanville, Texas".
Essentially a student is leaving/getting kicked out of class and he is yelling at the teacher telling her her job is to get people excited about what they are learning, and not to hand out packages all the time, and to actually do her job.
I feel like this is a no brainer, obviously the student is correct. This teacher should learn how to teach.
So many students just hate school because they find it boring. It is hard to engage an entire class, but it is not impossible. If this teacher is just handing out packages of information, obviously the class isn't going to be excited or engaged. If the teacher even attempted to stand at the front of the room to teach, then maybe she wouldn't even find her own job so boring.
I am tired of all of these teachers who are really shitty. The fresh out of teachers college teachers who just got their BEd because they majored in a subject like English and they have nothing else to do. It drives me nuts. I like the system in Norway- they encourage or insist that teachers have Masters in Education.
The BEd should not take 1 year, it should be at least 2 years.
Of course with experience, these new teachers can improve. But I can tell, if my teacher doesn't like what they are doing, I am not going to like what they are doing. Sometimes teachers will blatantly say they hate that unit or lesson they are teaching.
You need to be passionate about what you are teaching. If you aren't actually passionate about a specific class you are teaching, you need to use your mind to figure out how to make it more exciting.
The other day a teacher told me they hate teaching Civics. MAKE IT EXCITING. It doesn't have to be like "Okay so theres the executive, judicial and legislative branches of government, now take down this note", make it exciting! It's kind of hard to make lessons like that exciting, but make it into a game somehow. Or even when you do teach the more "boring topics", they can be fill in the blanks or notes, but then make something else fun.
I think that teachers need to not be embarrassed and need to step out of their comfort zones as well. Act crazy or silly, the kids love it!
I think that 3 of the most underrated teaching techniques are:
1. Incorporating physical activity into it somehow. Especially when reviewing information before a test or an exam. Honestly, it may be super corny, especially for high school students, but I am in grade 12 and although I'd probably think it was "lame" at first, if you can get everyone involved, it'd be fun. What do I mean by "physical activity"? I mean like obstacle courses where some of the obstacles are questions to do with the material. The other thing is when you are teaching a long boring lesson, ask everybody to stand up and stretch or stand up and do jumping jacks. Or even having a dance party or something stupid. It may be lame, but if you keep doing it repeatedly, eventually everyone will be into it.
2. GO OUTSIDE. A lot of teachers think going outside can be a distraction, but if the weather is nice, the sun will actually help them. If you can incorporate the outdoors into your lesson with metaphors, that would help too. The only way it is a distraction is if there are other classes around doing more interesting things like gym class. Your students aren't going to start chasing birds or sprinting the track... they'll be focused and thankful you left the cement walls of your class.
3. Discussions. I know that discussions happen a lot, but it's not just for grade 11 and 12 students who know what they are talking about. You need to transfer your passion for a topic to your students. If you are talking about a boring topic like the legislative, executive and judicial branches, have them write an opinion statement and then have students share them and start a conversation about it. Creating memories and having activities like discussions and debates will keep everyone involved and help them remember what you are teaching. In classes like math where it is hard to really have class discussions, you need to split people into smaller groups and give them an equation to work on together--- that they don't know how to solve, and they work together to solve it.
You need to let the student figure out things on their own.
With the case of Jeff Bliss and the teacher... well that teacher really does need to learn to teach. Even if that class is something where you need a lot of "textbook" work with worksheets and booklets and packages, you can still make it fun. My individuals and families in a diverse society class in grade 12 had a lot of textbook reading and questions, but discussions can come very easy in that class, I remember the teacher had us do a lot of activities as well.
Teachers need a better education so they can learn how to teach people to learn.
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