Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Friday, June 15, 2007
Long time coming, new spin on philosophy
It's been a long time since I've posted on here because I thought no one was reading it, and I've been busy. I just saw I had a comment from Dan so I decided to post again. I'm actually in Arkansas right now with my family for my brother's orientation at the University of Arkansas. I can't believe he's about to start college! He's only two years younger than me, but it makes me feel so old (yes, twenty-year-olds can feel old too). Being here has inspired me to really indulge my own college experience. There are so many times that I take it for granted. "I'm so tired of school." "I don't want to go to class." Yet, there are people in every nook and cranny of this world who would do anything to get the opportunities staring me in the face.
Being here has also reminded me of why I want to teach and reiterated what I learned in Switzerland (see Aggieinthealps.blogspot.com). One of the foundations at U of A is inquiry--creating life long learners. That is something I truly believe in and want to emphasize in my teaching. Life isn't just about cramming a bunch of "stuff" in your brain between the ages of 5 and 22. It's about learning the basics to inspire deeper learning, which leads to passion, which leads to expertise, which leads to wanting to know more and more and more. William Butler Yeats says, "“Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.” I totally agree. For pleasure or for professional development, learning is not a state of life, it's a state of mind. As a teacher, I should live out this out if I'm going to "preach" it. And I plan to.
Being here has also reminded me of why I want to teach and reiterated what I learned in Switzerland (see Aggieinthealps.blogspot.com). One of the foundations at U of A is inquiry--creating life long learners. That is something I truly believe in and want to emphasize in my teaching. Life isn't just about cramming a bunch of "stuff" in your brain between the ages of 5 and 22. It's about learning the basics to inspire deeper learning, which leads to passion, which leads to expertise, which leads to wanting to know more and more and more. William Butler Yeats says, "“Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.” I totally agree. For pleasure or for professional development, learning is not a state of life, it's a state of mind. As a teacher, I should live out this out if I'm going to "preach" it. And I plan to.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Educated
I've been inspired. I have a research paper due tomorrow. The subject is blogging, but mine is specifically about teachers who blog. Thus, I have read a countless number of blogs in the past two weeks. I would name a few of my favorites, but I'm sure I'll forget one or two of them so if you're really interested then just look at my blogroll whenever I get it up and running.
I'm really pumped because I feel like I have found this secret treasure by reading all of these blogs of veteran educators. I'm a pre-service teacher so I'm really into learning everything I can about the best techniques for the classroom. Honestly, after reading all of these blogs by amazing teachers I don't feel like I will be ready in a little over a year and a half to have my own class. I tutor at the local high school for about seven hours a week and I absolutely love it. But tutoring is a far cry from running a classroom. My only consolation is that I haven't started my methods classes yet, and student teaching is supposed to help a lot... right?
I'm not sure if all of the edubloggers out there realize it, but they have some serious mentoring potential by using blogs. If my university really wanted to beef up their future teachers before letting them out of the pin, they would have them paired up with teachers through blogs. I have so many questions to ask..."How do you deal with classroom management? What are your discipline procedures? How do you have your room set up? Have you ever dealt with racial tension in your classroom?" Those are just a few. I wish I had more guts to comment on some of their blogs, but who am I? A pre-service teacher who tutors. Whoop-dee-do.
I really enjoy reading the blogs even if I'm not in on the conversation. They are the inner-thoughts of a teacher who probably doesn't wear her heart on her sleeve during the school day. These are not just any teachers though, these are the hardcore teachers. No, that doesn't mean holiday sweater-vest wearing. You would have to be, to spend all day teaching, and then write about it in your blog at night--on your own precious time. I think that's wonderful. I want to be one of those teachers.
Right now, I am "an apple seed," but one day I hope to be a beautifully wise tree reaping the fruits of my labor; watching students leave my class with more knowledge than the day they walked in, an incurable zest for learning, and more compassion for others. On top of that, I want them walk away knowing how to access information and find answers for themselves, not to rely on someone else to give them the answers. I mean that in two ways; to maintain integrity and to know where to find what they're looking for whether that be via the internet, dictionary, or textbook. I know, I know those are starry-eyed, don't-have-a-lick-of-experience notions, but why not? For now, that is my mission, and I will change it as need-be.
I'm really pumped because I feel like I have found this secret treasure by reading all of these blogs of veteran educators. I'm a pre-service teacher so I'm really into learning everything I can about the best techniques for the classroom. Honestly, after reading all of these blogs by amazing teachers I don't feel like I will be ready in a little over a year and a half to have my own class. I tutor at the local high school for about seven hours a week and I absolutely love it. But tutoring is a far cry from running a classroom. My only consolation is that I haven't started my methods classes yet, and student teaching is supposed to help a lot... right?
I'm not sure if all of the edubloggers out there realize it, but they have some serious mentoring potential by using blogs. If my university really wanted to beef up their future teachers before letting them out of the pin, they would have them paired up with teachers through blogs. I have so many questions to ask..."How do you deal with classroom management? What are your discipline procedures? How do you have your room set up? Have you ever dealt with racial tension in your classroom?" Those are just a few. I wish I had more guts to comment on some of their blogs, but who am I? A pre-service teacher who tutors. Whoop-dee-do.
I really enjoy reading the blogs even if I'm not in on the conversation. They are the inner-thoughts of a teacher who probably doesn't wear her heart on her sleeve during the school day. These are not just any teachers though, these are the hardcore teachers. No, that doesn't mean holiday sweater-vest wearing. You would have to be, to spend all day teaching, and then write about it in your blog at night--on your own precious time. I think that's wonderful. I want to be one of those teachers.
Right now, I am "an apple seed," but one day I hope to be a beautifully wise tree reaping the fruits of my labor; watching students leave my class with more knowledge than the day they walked in, an incurable zest for learning, and more compassion for others. On top of that, I want them walk away knowing how to access information and find answers for themselves, not to rely on someone else to give them the answers. I mean that in two ways; to maintain integrity and to know where to find what they're looking for whether that be via the internet, dictionary, or textbook. I know, I know those are starry-eyed, don't-have-a-lick-of-experience notions, but why not? For now, that is my mission, and I will change it as need-be.
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