Once again, while cruising through one of my most favorite ed blogs, I find Dan Meyer has yet again provided something for me to think about. I love words and the power they hold. I love art for the power the images create, and to see them together was nothing short of heart-stopping.
The power of this artist’s words and images were immense. He talked about finding a type-face that worked for him. He saw meaning in the various type-faces that would never have occurred to me, but they reflect his “voice” as an artist. They made me redefine the way I see the art I do - I always struggle with being a minimalist with words.
Now as I struggle to reclaim my writer’s voice, and to define my educator’s inner landscape, his words ring true: “You have to be who you are no matter how dangerous it is.”
I found these YouTube videos by Dan Willingham, a cognitive psychology professor at UVA, on Eduwonkette’s blog, here. Mr. Willingham is presenting a very interesting argument regarding a deeply held educational belief: that students have learning style preferences and that we, as educators, are teaching to those student preferences. If we find that we have a student who has a strong preference for learning visually we teach that student visually - preferably mostly visually.
Mr. Willingham is saying that while research in cognitive science shows that we do actually have learning style preference, we do not learn specifically by those modalities. That learning takes place when meaning is created and stored as a memory representation. If we present visual images to our visual learners they will remember parts of the images as the “gist” of the content. The part of the images remembered will be stored as a visual memory and the meaning of the lesson will be stored as a separate memory representation. I hope I have that correct.
What surprised me was that there is, apparently, some notion that teachers are using one modality only to teach a lesson ie: visual, so all the visual learners will be able to learn. Then the lesson would be presented in an auditory manner for the auditory learners as in some form of centre style format. That is not what I do or ever considered doing. I teach all three modalities simultaneously: visual, auditory and kinesthetic. I am specifically going after learning meaning, not the modality. Mr. Willingham suggests in his paper, here, that each lesson should be taught according to which modality it is best suited for not students‘ learning style preference. I certainly hope that is what I have been doing with the goal of reaching as many students’ learning preferences as possible in order to create meaning (understanding of the content) while being as motivating as possible.
Some time ago, while reading (and lurking) a post on Dan Meyers blog, here, he made a statement about teaching just being a job while on a rant about Freedom Writers. My first reaction was, wait a minute young’un this isn’t just a job! Working at the gas station in high school was just a job, working for Social Services as a typist was just a job, working at the utility company collecting their damn money was JUST A JOB, teaching is NOT just a job.! But then I decided think about it. After all, Dan just doesn’t blog about things that are superficial. So what was he getting at. It took me some time to get the gist of what he was talking about. Finally, on the circuit in the gym, and a sentence from an intermediate level novel I was reading, the light goes on. I finally “get” it. Seems I’m a slow thinker.
While you may be as passionate about teaching as I am, to the point where it nearly took over my life - because I allowed it to and you may be very good at it and be very concerned about your teaching methods, philosophy, student achievement…teaching is just a job. It does not define who you are. It is only what you do. I no longer say to people, “I am a teacher.” I am not a teacher, I am Cindy. I now say, “I teach” because teaching is just a job. Thanks Dan.
I have a new position this year, one that is not in an inner city school. I have not worked in an upper-middle class school before. It is also four times larger than any of my previous schools and it is a dual language school. I get to run the library, provide prep relief to the intermediate teachers - teaching around 120 intermediate students research skills through various projects. There are four times as many students as have been in my previous schools. I’m a nervous wreck. I feel like a displaced person. What is causing all this anxiety and stress? Fear! How do I make that all important first impression on all those students? How do I make a good impression on my new colleagues, none of whom I know? How do I make this library my own? It has been ages since I’ve felt this first day stress. *whine*
I have had to stop and think about how I managed all this before. It was very simple. I am me - always - part Mary Poppins and mostly Arnie in Kindergarten Cop, complete with the humor. I will be fine….if I say it as a mantra I should believe it by Sept. 3rd.
After reading several books on teacher inquiry in the classroom, I was side-tracked into a reflection on what drives my passion to teach. Something has to make me want to get out of bed and brush 4cm of snow off my car in -30 celsius weather to drive to school.
Learning: the ability/skills to help others learn, whatever their learning style may be.
Inquiry: to develop as a teacher by looking at my own practice as a teacher-inquirer and engaging in reform-minded teaching.
I’m addicted to the “aha” looks on the faces of my students when they grasp something they’ve/we’ve been working on or struggling with. I’m addicted to the dead silence that occasionally fills my class when everyone is engaged in a topic or book or the blast of questions that stem from a discussion. I’m addicted to those rare moments of “magic” in the class.
I’m also addicted to the questions I constantly ask myself regarding my teaching. Those questions, that sometimes I’d rather not ask, questions that make you look at yourself as you teach and interact with the students.
I’ve been teaching for 11 years as an elementary teacher, both in the independent Catholic school system and, most recently, in the public school system. I have spent the majority of my teaching career in the Catholic system, in inner-city or rural schools. I have taught Kindergarten and enjoyed that for short periods of time. Usually after several years I needed the challenge of a more academic curriculum and to work with students who could do up their own coats and shoes. So I have moved into intermediate classrooms and that is where I am happiest as a classroom teacher. I also had the wonderful opportunity to teach math enrichment which I thoroughly enjoyed. I had the amazing good fortune to be the school teacher-librarian and outside of the classroom, I love this job passionately. Hooking kids on books - life doesn’t get any better.
I have been working in the public school system for the past year and have had the opportunity to work as a learning assistance teacher, special education and ESL/D teacher. It was an amazing year, with an incredibly steep learning curve. I loved every minute of it. I had the chance to work with some amazing children with autism, and other conditions. It was a year of intense training and much laughter.
I will be working this September in a new school,once again, as the teacher-librarian. Excited is a gross understatement of my feelings towards this new position!
I am also working on the second year of my graduate diploma through Simon Fraser University (SFU). The program is called Teaching in a Technological Environment (TLITE) and it revolves around using technology in our educational practice. I’ve learned more through my participation in this diploma program since January 2008 than in any other single time of my life. I started the program unable to send an email attachment to working on blogs, wikis, research data-bases and entering the 31 Day Blog Comment Challenge! My son calls me a blog junkie, which became the name for my blog here.
Someone once asked me what my passion was in life: to teach and to be a life-long learner.
