Curiosonari

After an almost 15-year career in technology I have decided it’s time for a change. I want to do something that contributes to society. I want to wake up every morning and feel I’m making a difference. Most of my life I’ve wanted to be a teacher and my family has always said I’m a natural. Thankfully my husband, Anand, is supportive of this change despite the drastic cut in pay . As I study for my teaching certification, I come across a tremendous amount of information which makes me do alot of thinking.

I don’t want to be a teacher so I can simply do things the way I remember when I was a student. And I don’t want to be the kind of teacher who does things a certain way because “that’s what everyone else is doing”. The art and science of teaching needs to be looked at with fresh eyes. We need to not only ask “why” we are teaching in a certain manner, we need to also ask “why not” do it differently. Why not?

Children are people. They are our next generation. Why not give them not only the tools but the environment to be successful. One of the exercises we’ve often had to do at Cisco where I currently work is take tests that tell us more about ourselves. These tests help us assess not only our strengths but our weaknesses. I understand not only who I am and why I may do things the way I do them, but it helps me to understand others and appreciate them. We need to do the same thing with our students. We need to help them understand not only their strengths and weaknesses but how do they best learn and thus succeed.

I was stunned when Anand told me that he used to go to noisy places in order to study. There is no way I could even begin to think if I was in a noisy place! I’d probably sit and analyze the people I saw. When I study I need to be somewhere quiet with no distractions at all. And I need to take breaks often, even if it’s just to get up and get some water. That’s how I’m most successful.

As I study for my CSET, I read about child development and how environment and ways of learning are big factors. Some children study best when in a straight back chair at a desk. Others focus more when they are in a comfy, squishy chair or on the floor. Some need dim lights while others need bright lights. Can’t some of these simple factors be incorporated into the classroom? Why not?

I’ve only volunteered at one school as I work on my studies. I’m currently trying to setup some volunteer time at another local school that is supposed to be one of the best in the area and I have to admit, I’m extremely curious to see how they’ve setup their classrooms to accomodate different ways of learning or studying. I’d like to think that I’d do things to support the success of our future generation. I’d like to think that I would be able to champion a different way of doing things while still meeting the federal and state criteria. I would like to create a study environment that is different from the way things have always been done. Why not…

- Shannon

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 15th, 2007 at 11:23 pm and is filed under Teaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.