Seventh Teaching Reflection

As I now reflect back on my first university level teaching experience I begin to realize that its not what we teach that is important... it's what the students learn. What I mean is that as teachers we can plan the best lessons, the coolest examples, and the most innovative activities, but in the end, all our manufactured efforts may have no impact at all on our students. I’ve decided that the most important gift we can give, and as teachers, the most vital lesson we can teach, is to share our enthusiasm for learning and our passion for our subject matter without giving the impression of performers. Now, this may chill some of you right to the bone because you may be thinking, “wait a minute, I don’t have any passion for my subject matter. The best enthusiasm I can muster on a daily basis is to actually get to work on time.” Fair enough. But there is more to teaching then designing the world’s greatest lesson plan, or the most thorough and exact to-the-standards assessments.

Teaching is about sharing the joy of learning and the thrill of comprehension. I can't get over the moments when something special happens in my classroom and I see a concept sinking in. Questions become more succinct. Interest is piqued. Heads start to nod... there's even smiling a lot of times. It's awesome! The best part of this process is understanding that my students WILL apply various aspects of the material to their lived experiences. My hope is that they would be encouraged to continue on in the pursuits that make their life a more wonderful experience while augmenting their individual communication practices.

To me, teaching is not about the stuff of the classroom, it’s about the changes that individuals make as they discover who they are and realize what they are capable of accomplishing. In effect, its not about what I try to teach, but about what they learn from me whether I am trying to teach that or not. Over and over I have returning students tell me about what they learned from me in my class that had nothing to do with the curriculum, and that I had no intention of teaching. How do you control that? You can’t. Our students pick up right away on who we are and why we are there. They can spot a phony in a minute and when they do, they tune-out and often drop out. I remind myself of this constantly! I understand that almost everyone who is drawn to teaching does so out of a genuine desire and need to help others. This is a good thing.

Consequently, not all teachers come equipped with the dynamic personality, or the broader understanding of what it takes to really capture the interest of the students, and then hold them there for long periods of time while pouring knowledge into their brains. Looking around my Pedagogy class, I can see that many of the PhD candidates are/were naturals... they no more needed me to teach them how to teach (as ABCD for IPC 1020) then they needed their parents to teach them how to breathe... they just do it... and they do it with ease, grace, and precision. Others have a lot of progress to make though.

Anyway, I believe it is not the subject matter but the person (the teacher) in the classroom that lights up a student’s imagination. Being genuine with students is important. Being honest about who you are and what you care about shows students that they can trust you and that are worth listening to. Once they're hooked, you can present them with any subject matter and conplex theoretical concepts that you might find challenging or beneficial while also integrating snippets of your own life. This anecdotal style is what serves me well.

Storytelling is one of the most basic methods of teaching (and one of the most fun) that I adhere to. As we share our life’s experiences we cannot control exactly what the students learn from us because we have no control over what they take away from what we're saying. However, we can use our experiences to engage our students and control their focus. Once we have their attention, the most important thing we can share with our students is our passion for learning. Once they have that, everything else is easy. True, not all of my students share my enthusiasm for life and learning, not all of them even care to be at college, nor do several think they care about effective communication, yet if I can pique their interest at some point during the semester I usually can shed a glimmer of interest into their otherwise mundane lives (which could lead to their processing and/or ruminating on what I've just taught them.)

Here's a quote that I recall a faculty member sharing with a class I sat in during my Master's work:

"Remember, what you teach your students in your classrooms matters to your students and the world in ways both measurable and immeasurable. Go be the great teachers you are."

That's a good place to end for now... cheersies! Going for a G & T now!