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wave1
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My path as a teacher began with early days
of entertaining children who came over to
our house when their mothers were visiting
my mother to play bridge or have tea.
My mother was a very proper woman who insisted
children be neither seen nor heard.
I learned how to entertain myself and
my playmates in quiet and creative ways.
There are days when teaching is the last thing I want to do.
Teaching five periods a day for five days a week
is very demanding. To teach is to perform before highly
critical audiences who sometimes do not want to be there
any more than the teacher does. Just as one carries
one's problems and issues into one's performance,
so too does one's audience.
A critical part of my day which helps to empty out
the clogged drains is what I call "check-in."
This is a simple procedure performed at the beginning
of class in which each student (and the teacher,
if appropriate) briefly states what is weighing
on his or her mind. If a student or teacher has
nothing in particular to share on a given day,
he or she may pass, but everyone is daily given
the opportunity to to express his or her concerns,
to unload their problems, and to be heard.
Check-in provides a routine which starts the engine
of the class and on some days getting the motor started,
making the connections with one's captive audience,
is paramount to a successful day.
People have visited my classroom and commented that the
students seem happy. I consider such a statement to be a
high compliment. I once believed such an observation meant
we were accomplishing little. If the students didn't look
stressed and deeply ensnared in the swamp of learning, then
they couldn't really be learning. Well, aaaannnnhhhh!
Wrong! An unhappy audience can walk out of the theater.
Unhappy students can not. They can act out; they can be nasty;
they can dissociate and let their minds float on the breeze,
out of the classroom. But unless teachers or administrators
throws them out of the classroom they are stuck.
With happy students there is an underlying element crucial
to the success of the learning environment It is a
factor that is hard to measure. It is trust.
There must be a significant level of trust between
a teacher and a student for true learning to be
cultivated and nurtured, to take off and to grow on
its own.
Pouring out information and later quizzing and testing
and pandering for feedback on the dispensed information
does nothing to foster trust, happiness or joy -- all
of which can be found in the quest for learning about
oneself and the world we inhabit.
Like the fictional character Chauncey Gardner in
the warm and wonderful movie Being There,
I would agree that the world can be likened to a garden.
The classroom can also be conceived as a garden.
Children need to feel safe, protected from ridicule,
in order to explore and learn. A garden needs a
secure fence to keep out predators. In a healthy garden,
the soil is tilled, the weeds pulled, and the plants
are fed with water and sunshine and fertilizers.
Students need to be challenged, to have the
old ideas and prejudices "weeded out," to be encouraged
to dig deep, to allow the sun to shine in their
lives in the form of laughter and compassion.
As with the plants in a garden, children require
hands-on attention which caters to their
individual needs. (Spacing need not necessarily be in rows!)
Rest is also important, time to put down roots and soak
up nutrients. Each plant matures at its own rate.
Harvests can not be pushed.
The farmer needs a home to live in and a personal
environment that provides good health and good spirit.
Tools are needed from the simplest hoe for small gardens
to the fanciest tractor/cultivator for large fields.
Even the environment outside the farm affects the farmer's
crops and life.
From a worldly level such as air pollution and weather
to neighborhood, city or state regulations on drainage
or pesticide use. And of course the current market
trends come in to play as to what crops are in demand.
Seasons change; farmers get sick; so many things affect
the crops! There are all kinds of seeds.
And there are all kinds of soils.
Farmers can become so busy that they forget that
there are support systems to help them. And the
days of the small farmer seem as numbered as the days
of the small community grocery store.
Still, resources are available to those who take the time
to search, to those willing to reach out for help and
advice. Not everyone is cut out to be a farmer.
It is good to know the pitfalls of systems, the glories
of witnessing the growth of a crop, the knowledge that
not every day will be a great one and that dawn comes
just the same.
©2000
Jeff Hartzer
contact Mr.Hness
Jeff
Hartzer is solely responsible for the contents of the BigRiverJournal.
Copyright reverts to author.
BigRiverJournal Submissions are welcome.
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