Though
I am not sure what this image is intended to represent, I adore it. This is
what learning feels like for me – receiving ideas, data, questions from all
angles and from all corners of my existence, working them over in the safe and
infinite space within my skull where I am only me – ME! Not mom, wife,
professoressa, amica, daughter – just me – and then that charge
which signals my idea, that I have understood something in my own way.
It propels me forward, reaching out, altering the way that I inhabit my many
other roles. I teach because learning rules!
Why do I teach? For the
- no just kidding.
This is my daughter.
Doesn’t she look so vulnerable? What is going to come her
way? What is going to frustrate her, make her doubt herself, challenge her? Who
is going to influence her, guide her, encourage her, challenge her? Who will
she turn to when she won’t turn to me and how will they respond? I was her too,
I remember… I teach because my students are wonderfully vulnerable. I want to
know them, support them, challenge them and be challenged by them.
This
is why I teach.
Thanks for bringing up the idea of being vulnerable and open. I think any sort of communication between two people involves some equal level vulnerability, so it makes sense that if we want to challenge as an educator we have to be willing to be challenged by our students too.
ReplyDeleteAnd wow, your comment on sitting around to "talk about how right we were" has really made me think about ideas of representation and diversity. I'm not entirely sure you can control all the questions asked in the class, but I like the idea that part of that questioning is honestly considering the effect our questions, assumptions, and actions have.
Thank you for your sharing. I learned that you teaching because of learning rules, because of your daughter and students. As human beings we are not alone in the world.We have our family, we have our classmates and as educators we have students. Besides, we have ourselves at the same time. I also married but I do not have child now because I think the education of a child is really important, this kind of responsibility is much more significant. And I appreciate your idea of "I teach because my students are wonderfully vulnerable. I want to know them, support them, challenge them and be challenged by them." As educators challenge students and be challenged by them I think it is really interesting.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing! Unfortunately it's no joke for some educators, they are going for the paycheck rather than for the passion of educating students to the best of their abilities.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea that you want to challenge students! Challenging them allows them to think critically of concepts and questions that are being conveyed.
Thanks for sharing.It's really great to see that most of us want to be a teacher not because of the money but because that we want to contribute to younger generation.I really love the first picture.It's like that we got knowledge from our teacher and then give it to our student.It is kind of like the pass of knowledge from one generation to another.I hope that you can be a good teacher in the future just like you want.
ReplyDelete