Teaching All Day: Actually Teaching

After the quiz, students went to lunch. When they came back, it was time for me to actually teach them. I didn't get to choose what I taught them or the method in which I taught them. My teacher gave me the transparency's and information to present.

Sometimes the best you can hope from that class is that they will listen and stay awake. I worked extremely hard to get kids to listen, stay awake, and engage. I asked them questions and made them raise their hands and volunteer information. Anything to make sure they were actually listening to me. One time I called a kid out who was sleeping. Other than that, they did pretty well.

My lesson was admittedly boring. I would have done it differently with different technology and different circumstances. If I had had time to plan I think there are ways I could have made it more interactive (more 'inquiry' based for those EDU peeps reading this), but time was not available to me.

In a few weeks, I have to take over completely. I am teaching a unit on Hamlet in one class and a unit on King Arthur in the other two classes. Sometime in the near future I need to figure out what the poo I'm going to do with these.

My goals for these kids involve more than them staying awake and being quiet. I don't want them to be quiet. I want them to talk about the material. I want them to be involved in it.

I don't believe that teaching is merely one person standing in front of the students telling them information. That is not teaching. That is throwing information at them. What does that teach them? To sit around and wait for someone else to do intellectual work for them and then hand them the product. I'm not about that at all.

Standing in front of the class giving them information is one of the most boring things ever. I want teaching to be an adventure. I want to learn too. I don't want to do the work for them. That will not help them later in life. When they get jobs or go to college they will not benefit from believing that it is acceptable to sit around and wait for someone to tell you everything you need to know. Some things you need to find out or make meaning from on your own.