Memed!

Clay Burell has tagged me with this teaching meme, here goes:

  1. I am a good teacher because… ummmm… am I? I hope so … I try to make sure that I “see” students in my classes and connect with them. I aim lessons at what is interesting and useful for students rather than what is interesting or useful to me. I model a love of learning and hope that enthusiasm is contagious
  2. If I weren’t a teacher I would be a… journalist, civil libertarian, NGO worker …
  3. My teaching style is… liberal, inquiry based with lots on questioning, talking and writing,
  4. My classroom is… My motto is that whoever is doing the talking and the writing is doing most of the learning – I try to ensure that it’s not me and repeat this mantra ad nauseum …
  5. My lesson plans are… incredibly detailed and I usually go off on a completely different tangent
  6. One of my teaching goals is… to create an environment in which learning is fun, interesting and/or useful; to help students find their passion and their “voice” and to make connections beyond the narrow spaces that confine us
  7. The toughest part of teaching is… pacing myself, I’m not even sure I know how to do this – maintaining my life outside school, it’s easy to spend every waking moment thinking about what I’m teaching, this includes when I am watching films or listening to music, reading newspapers or books. Sometimes I forget that not everyone is as passionate about Hamlet, battles of World War I or wikis as I am …
  8. The thing I love about teaching is… working with teenagers and seeing them excited about making new discoveries – my job is never boring, constantly evolving and is intellectually and emotionally challenging,
  9. A common misconception about teaching is… that anyone can do it… that you get “heaps of holidays”
  10. The most important thing I’ve learning since I started teaching is… “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time” – OK so that was Tolstoy not me but you get the picture

I’l tag Seonia and Patrick