Clay Burell has tagged me with this teaching meme, here goes:
- 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
- If I weren’t a teacher I would be a… journalist, civil libertarian, NGO worker …
- My teaching style is… liberal, inquiry based with lots on questioning, talking and writing,
- 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 …
- My lesson plans are… incredibly detailed and I usually go off on a completely different tangent
- 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
- 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 …
- 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,
- A common misconception about teaching is… that anyone can do it… that you get “heaps of holidays”
- 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