Corinne Null on fri 13 mar 98
Joyce,
Thank you for your thoughtful response to my question about qualities of a
"good" teacher. Now that you write it out, there certainly are lots of
styles of teaching.
One of my biggest concerns about teaching is that I tend not to be a very
verbal person, tending more towards (slow) thinking, whereas I often think
of teachers as being quite verbal and quick. Perhaps the issue is really
to determine what the student should learn, and plan how to get that
across, based on individual styles. I once heard a talk about learning
styles being either visual, auditory, or kinetic(body motion) and that all
teaching should make sure that all three styles of learning are addressed
in each lesson so that all students can get the message. I find it
interesting that making pottery already requires the use of the kinetic and
visual.
So, aren't there really two different aspects to teaching? One being to
determine the goals of the class, and the other being the actual delivery
of that message. I'd love to hear a discussion of the goals to be taught
in ceramics for various age and academic levels! Oh, wait a minute, is
that what NCECA is all about?
Corinne
At 02:45 PM 3/9/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Passion and dedication accompanied by the necessary learnable teaching
>skills help and tend to motivate students.
Sometimes the
>rather rigid, go-by-the-book teacher, who is the professed favorite of
>few, produces students who have learned the most. Test scores alone
>aren't enough to make such a judgment; it's next session's teachers who
>see the strength of their new students and vie for those promoted from
>said "rigid" teacher's class who create the legend. Sometimes it's
>potential employers of her exiting students who recognize that her
>students l-e-a-r-n and seek to hire them. Glory be! Sometimes the
>pain-in-the-neck-to-any-administrator, openly rebellious, breaker of all
>rules, is the Super Star in the classroom. Students may or may not like
>him either, but if they learn the lessons taught, he qualifies IMNSHO.
>The compassionate nurturer may create warmth in our hearts, but if he
>isn't also stirring our brain cells and causing us to think and create,
>is he a good teacher simply because he's a nice, decent person? Should
>she be awarded tenure based solely on a cooperative attitude? Should the
>rebel be banished from academia just because he's a rebel?
>Joyce
>In the Mojave where El Nino has covered our sand with green stuff!
>
Corinne Null
Bedford, NH
USA
null@mediaone.net
| |
|
