My simile was: teaching is like new underwear. It is a reference to the 1992 comedy classic Wayne's World starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey. When asked about a recent change in his environment, Dana Carvey said, "it's like a new pair of underwear, at first it's restrictive, but pretty soon it becomes a part of you." I feel that teaching is the same way. Our classes and the government make teaching sound really restrictive, and that there are so many rules to follow that there is no point in having a thinking human do it, especially when we are told just to do exactly what we are told, and to teach exactly what the administration wants us to teach and how they want us to teach it. However, as I have been in schools, I have found that it's not as bad as all that, and not as scary as some of our classes make it out to be (seriously, I feel like the whole of Spring Quarter existed just to scare us). I am really beginning to get the hang of it, and I am seeing at my dyad that there are multiple ways to teach well. I am thus confident that I can myself find a way to teach that isn't too forced, and maybe even works well.
This leads well into the next question, who will I be as a teacher and a colleague. I don't know. I want to be a good teacher, and a good colleague, and I think I have the capacity and the tools to be as such. However, I also know that I have the capacity to royally screw it up, I hope not to, but I know that I can. All I can say is that in the present I want to work hard in order to be a good teacher and a polite colleague. I believe that I have guidance and will continue to receive guidance from the Holy Spirit to do so. I have some confidence and assurance that there will always be those present to help me improve as a teacher, and I will have innumerable opportunities to do so. Man is free however, and with that freedom comes the potential for evil and failure, and uncertainty in my own ability to follow guidance both human and divine. In the specific outcomes of my practice, I must then defer to Wittgenstein and say, "whereof one cannot say, thereof one must be silent."
I think the classes we took in Spring quarter were to give us the "other" view, the one that is not practical and existing in schools. I took it to be that schooling and education could be different and that we could think about it different than maybe we already do. The example of teachers not doing direct instruction, because information is available online, is one of the ideas I remember. If knowledge is free and readily available, what is the purpose and role of teachers? These kinds of questions are good for setting our mindset, as we move forward into the practical world of teaching.
ReplyDeleteAs far as your ability to be a good colleague, I know you will be an excellent colleague. I wrote on one of my Canvas responses that as a colleague, I want to learn how to speak what I believe to be true. I feel that if I always give in and stay mostly quiet about how I feel, which could be more likely at the beginning of my teaching, I will not benefit and actually, my colleagues won't, either. I know I will need to go with things I don't agree with sometimes but I think that being true to what I believe will improve the entire arena I work in. It will definitely keep me saner, too. We can't "promise" to be a good colleague, but we can commit to keeping with principles that we believe in. When we're able to live by them, we're extra happy. When we are not, we will learn from it and try again next time. :)