Thursday, November 15, 2007

Teaching

Today was way fun. I love the kids - they're so funny. It was fun and I think they really did learn a lot of new things. In my intro to seminary teaching class we read a quote by President Packer that said that the most important tool a teacher has for teaching is his/her eyes . I totally agree with that (who wouldn't, he's an apostle . . .) - it is so crucial that you are constantly watching those you are teaching. Assessing whether learning is happening, checking for questions, disagreement, boredom, distraction, etc. The best thing I think we did was introduce ourselves at the beginning - the ability of the students to call us by name and our ability to call them by name was incredibly valuable. The knowledge of someones name might be the most important thing you can have when teaching them - I'm not sure, but at the moment I can't think of something I'd rather have.
Posted by Scotty B at 5:31 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Jr High

This may be my longest post ever. Today we went to teach at the JR High and the kids were . . . exactly what I expected. I was shocked at how surprised everyone was by the kids. What do you expect from a 14-16 yr old? They don't have an attention span of 10 minutes, they are annoying, they do say stupid things, they don't want to participate, they know everything, their hormones are ranging, they want to be cool, - WHAT IN THE WORLD DID YOU EXPECT? We were all the same way when we were young. Isn't that why you become a teacher? To be with those kids, to help them, to love them despite all the annoying things they do?
All I heard was: "Is discipline allowed?" "Ugh, I want to kill that kid!" and "These kids are terrible!" I was at a loss for words - which was probably good since I would have gotten myself in trouble if I would have said anything, but I guess I just don't understand. That's why I love these kids - the times when they do listen, when you do get something through - that's when it's all worth it. Yeah, it's hard, it's not always roses, power points, and perfect answers - but that's what teachings all about. That's the challenge of it - you've got to figure out how to connect with them - what can you say, what question can you ask to get them involved, what's the next activity that could spark some interest . . .
I don't know - I just think the kids acted exactly as expected - yea, that doesn't mean that they acted good - but I don't think we should have been surprised in the least bit by them.

Teaching is figuring out how to reach the one kid who doesn't want to be reached, teaching the annoying kid something he doesn't want to learn, and making a difference in the life of the kid who won't realize it until he's 25. Now I'm rambling and sounding philosophical so I'm done.
Posted by Scotty B at 6:06 PM 1 comments
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