'Teaching and learning should bring joy'

By -
 Whenever my motivation for teaching is running low, or worse, when I feel I’m heading for burnout, my go-to YouTube video for some inspiration is Rita Pierson’s Every kid needs a champion. Even though her context is different from mine, I believe there are underlying principles of the teaching/learning dynamic that are universal. 


Relationships

Rita tells us that teaching and learning is about human connections. No matter how much thought we’ve put into our curriculum and courses, or how great our materials and tasks are, if we cannot build that all-important rapport with our students, it’s likely that not much learning will take place. To me, this relationship between the teacher and students is more than just about being liked, although that is a good base to establish. It’s also about building trust and showing empathy. This is especially important with those students who seem most resistant to us. Rita reminds us to seek first to understand rather than to be understood. Part of being a reflective professional is exposing to ourselves where we went wrong and identifying how best to respond in the future. Years ago, I had a student in my elementary general English class who felt she was higher than that. Every day after class she would tell me that at a school in her country she was in a higher level. My response was to show her that she was in the right level by asking her to do an elementary diagnostic test. She complied and didn’t do too well. I pointed out the areas she clearly needed to work on. In hindsight, this was the worst thing I could have done. Naturally, she became more resistant to me and our class. There were daily tussles and this started to affect the other students. 

Looking back, I realise how much better I could have handled that situation. Seek first to understand. Why did she want to be in a higher level? Would it be possible to persuade her to see the value to be had in the elementary class? If not, would it be possible to move her and put certain scaffolding in place to support her? Perhaps she could be allowed to try the higher-level class for a few days or a week and then see how she feels. Teachers are human beings and there are a million factors that might influence our decisions. But these critical incidents are great self-improvement tools. I believe we shouldn’t beat ourselves up as it is, of course, impossible to go back in time and change things. Instead, we can learn and move on more confidently.

It's not about me

I learned a long time ago that when I’m in a class in front of students, it’s not about how good I am or how much I know. Of course, I need to be a good teacher and need to know my subject. But I think the way to show that is through making it about the students and their progress. It can be so easy for teachers to want to put their skills and knowledge on display in order to impress and gain admiration. More often than not, doing that has the opposite effect. When students tell me that I’m a good teacher, I remind them that I couldn’t have done it without them. And I believe that to be true. It’s not just some Hallmark platitude. 

But here’s Ms Pierson. I hope she inspires you too. Happy teaching and learning.


TED. (2013, May 3). Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFnMTHhKdkw

Image

pixabay


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Incorporating information from sources

By -
Image
  This is my response to a task to create an academic skills lesson. Topic:  How to incorporate information from sources  Broad discipline area:  Social sciences Target audience: 1st Year Undergraduate students Lesson aims To introduce and practise: reading with a purpose. summarising, paraphrasing and synthesising. collaborative learning. critical thinking.   1.  Read the text about race assigned to your group and, as a group , write a short definition in the Table 1 : 2. Read the other two texts and check if you agree with the other groups' definitions. 3. With your original group, compare the definitions from the three texts as outlined in Table 2 : 4. Using the three definitions, write a cohesive response to the question: What is race? Do this individually. Remember to cite each author and year of publication. 5. Compare in your group. 6. Then compare your output with this model: Small (2006) writes that race as a concept or theory originated in the 18 th and 19 th
Read more

Moves Like Swales

By -
Image
  The CARS model In his seminal work on genre analysis published in 1990, John Swales introduced the revised version of his Create a Research Space (CARS) model. Adika (2014, p. 58) explains that this model  'describes the rhetorical moves that researchers utilize to claim research space in their disciplines in a highly competitive environment.' Specifically, the CARS model pertains to the introduction section of research articles (RA). Swales (1990) points out that introductions can be difficult to write. This is because RA authors have an array of options at their disposal for how they might approach the opening paragraphs.  The CARS model comprises 3 rhetorical moves, each with particular steps (See Table 1). Hyland (2006, p. 50) defines a rhetorical move as ‘a distinct communicative act designed to achieve a particular communicative function’. Put another way, a rhetorical move is a stretch of text anywhere from a phrase to a paragraph with a particular job (Rienecker, 2021
Read more

GELT vs EAP

By -
Image
General English language teaching (GELT) is the context in which I have honed, and to a large extent am still honing, my teaching skills. Like English for Academic Purposes (EAP) contexts, GELT comes with its own unique set of challenges and rewards. In this post, I look at some of the differences between these two contexts through the prism of my experience. Therefore, the reader should be aware of the anecdotal nature of my commentary. Alexander, Argent, and Spencer (2018, pp. 11-13) outline differences along three categories, namely context, people, and teaching and learning content. I will now briefly explore each of these and their sub-categories. Context What drives the syllabus? In GELT contexts, the syllabus is level driven. These are typically labelled Beginner, Elementary, Pre-intermediate, etc. Some schools and institutions might also refer to these levels as A1, A2, B1, etc [based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR)]. New students ar
Read more