I once worked at a school where I was also a student. I had signed up for a course in Modern Greek at a language school and luckily for all of us, the director of studies was doing the course as a Masters project. This meant that it was very communicative and the teacher was very enthusiastic about what she was doing. A wonderful combination. Later on I was offered a job teaching English there. It was a very strange experience to be the student and then within the space of ten minutes the teacher, both in the same classroom. The good thing was that it made me very aware of what role you play as a teacher in the classroom and of course what you can (and cannot) expect from students.
Being a student again in the computer course has once remined me of those useful lessons. Enthusiasm is perhaps more important than even knowledge, that if you can motivate your students they will achieve miracles. If, however, you use your knowledge as a mace with which to bore them into submission, being the most knowledgable person in the room will mean absolutely nothing.
This does not mean we should be ignorant as educators but rather, we have to recognise the human factor in teaching. That's why I don't lose sleep at nights over the possibility of computers, internet or something similar taking my job.
The moral of the story: If you're bored doing what you do in class, the kids will agree with you 100%
1 comment:
You know that I agree with you 110% per cent. Content is only 7% of teaching -- it better be accurate and correct, however, the enthusiasm is more important to getting your message across! You've got it on the money!
I have a five year old computer lab and though I'm getting a new one over the summer, I feel our curriculum is light years ahead of schools who spend a week discussing floppy disks!
Keep up the enthusiasm!
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