|
Two points stuck foremost in my mind when I decided to become a teacher. First, under no circumstances was I ever going to be like my teachers of old: narrow-minded, stuffy, stuck in their ways and closed to alternatives. Secondly, I would change the world for the better, one student at a time. Lofty ambitions? Perhaps, but hopefully they are ambitions I will be able to stick to throughout my teaching career.
My pre-service training has introduced me to many concepts, ideas and theories. Motivated, haunted even, by the memories of my high-school teachers, I’ve constantly been on the look-out for that one trick that will make the teaching experience not just a pleasure for the students, but also a tool that will enable true learning and comprehension. I recall many teacher-centered classes with outdated pedagogy and unskilled classroom management from my high-school days. I remember my classmates and I dragging ourselves through hours of prescribed rote-learning, dictated notes and biased dispositions by the teachers. I plan to make use of these experiences, the training and education I received to create an atmosphere where it is a joy for the students to learn and to succeed.
Based on my prior experiences, it is of great importance to me to have a consonant learning environment for the students. Instead of choosing from a single theory or method, I believe it is of greater value to the students to have many methods and strategies as not every one way will appeal to every student’s way of learning. Emphasis should be placed on the students, with the teacher performing as a mentor or facilitator. Students will take away more from a given lesson if it is meaningful to them and if they discover it themselves.
Granted, certain occasions might require reaching back to lectures or teaching language by translation. But that, in my mind is the main part of my philosophy, and I believe, one of my greatest strengths: that certain occasion. Or in other words, flexibility. My search for that special trick or tool has exposed me to many ideas by many educators and researchers, among them Krashen, Gardner, Asher, Dewey, Gagne and Erikson, just to name a few. Where one theory or idea might have been lacking, another provided a solution. It helped me realize that there is no single trick or tool out there that will do the job. An amalgam, however, can. An amalgam has the flexibility to apply Total Physical Response to the Direct Method when that certain occasion calls for it. Also, to incorporate computers, not only as reinforcement, but as introduction or actual lessons themselves.
I have a great love for knowledge and for sharing of this knowledge. It is my hope, that I will find that button in my students that will ignite their own passion for knowledge.
|
|
