tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-364796018697787735.post6234550937104660170..comments2023-05-05T06:17:46.166-07:00Comments on Teaching a Dog to Talk.: Some Thoughts About Teaching.Quilbilly-Todd Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07173576510643984635noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-364796018697787735.post-76671461106715277912011-05-30T20:25:19.845-07:002011-05-30T20:25:19.845-07:00Kevin, thanks for the thoughtful comments. I do re...Kevin, thanks for the thoughtful comments. I do remember vaguely my public school career as a student and I am sure I would have fit in the smaller class student category. I did not get particularly good grades, but if the content interested me I was engaged. I also spent a of time daydreaming and staring off into space, activities that don't get a lot of credibility when it comes to learning but maybe they should. <br />Maren, like I have said from my own experience some of my lowest achieving students have been in my smallest classes. I guess one shouldn't confuse cause and effect. ToddQuilbilly-Todd Millerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07173576510643984635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-364796018697787735.post-38257698412476251902011-05-30T16:43:09.077-07:002011-05-30T16:43:09.077-07:00You have some interesting ideas here about the pot...You have some interesting ideas here about the potential effects of class size.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-364796018697787735.post-85890620454738977642011-05-28T09:23:03.131-07:002011-05-28T09:23:03.131-07:00I like this post a lot, it reminds me of the way I...I like this post a lot, it reminds me of the way I felt throughout most of my public education. From the opposite side of the spectrum, as a student in this time period you have to ask yourself similar questions. What's in the making of a good education, clearly if I want to get a good job I need to learn a lot. But there's a plethora of things I'm required to learn in school that will not have any relation to what I'll do later in life. On top of all this, you have to assess the true accuracy of the education system we default to, can grades really define your knowledge of a subject. I had a moderate amount of success in high school, asking the questions I wanted to ask so I personally understood what I wanted to understand, and passing tests with high grades based on this personal understanding and a bit of knowing how most test questions are written. I think your example of the two classes suggests that in order to like something, or be interested in it, you don't necessarily have to comply with the typical educational dogma. They may not even defy conventional logic, the larger class is full of kids who value "doing well" in school more than "learning" It's an perfect situation to show that grades don't always work the way they're supposed to. But when you look at the big picture of how peoples lives will change during and after high school, how can you expect it to work all the time? There will be people who will come to class and take the information you give them, retain it completely, but shrug at the idea of homework. They'd be content to talk about any subject you've learned so far, but they don't think they should have to write it down. Visualizing the material, and wanting to 'do well' are entirely different things. It's definitely fair to say that society pressures us to excel in school, it's hard coded into us at a young age, that the key for success is your education, but if you personally find a way to grasp what you're expected to, why should you be expected to keep working it over and over until it's universally understood.<br />The first red flag that comes up is the idea of an unfair advantage, well what if someone has a scientific aptitude, then they shouldn't have to jump through the same hoops as everyone else? It certainly sounds unfair, but at the same time the public education system is trying to blanket teach kids of varying aptitudes and varying capabilities in the same room over the same time-span, that sounds pretty unfair to me too.<br /><br /> As far knowing how to teach, you were and I imagine always will be an amazing teacher, not because your students have good averages, or you have a system down. But because the way you teach is by explaining things as you understand them, in a down to earth way. Your no nonsense mentality keeps the regular distractions at bay, but truly it's the way you communicate information that makes you a great teacher, I think it's what every good teacher does whether they realize it or not, having high quality communication skills, and a desire to truly understand the material yourself.<br /><br />As far as curing the world and feeling like you don't always know what you're trying to do, I think the thing to remember is that the odds are severely stacked against you, it's realistically impossible to be able to give a perfect 100% A+ education to every single student you have, because every single person thinks in different terms, and has different problems that may impede their education. The fact that your doing this well against those odds just attests to the quality of your character. It takes a certain kind of person to be a teacher, and I think your that kind of person, that's how you do it.Kevinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03233180150463913740noreply@blogger.com