Carpe Diem

Carpe Diem - a phrase that is so inspiring... despite its overuse. The words Carpe Diem, as most know, means Seize the Day. I first learned of the word from that wonderfully inspiring disney musical 'Newsies'. The music, growing up, brought the significance of the words to life for me. I felt that it meant to take the opportunity to not let others decide your fate. As I became older the words began to take on new meaning and actually reflect the real meaning - to not let opportunities pass you by and to get the most out of everything.

I once again came upon the words while reading "Learning & Teaching for Exponential Growth - a Three Person Problem", by Susan Peterson Gong. After seeing the words again I felt like looking the phrase up on Wikipedia. I know Wikipedia isn't really the source of all knowledge, but it's a good source for basic info and collaborated information. The information was quite interesting. Carpe Diem doesn't actually mean seize the day, because carpe literally means "to pick, pluck, pluck off, cull, crop, gather". But who cares what the literal translation means? We twist meaning all the time to fit our needs ("That girl is so hot" - isn't referring to temperature of the body). Jumping back onto subject, Carpe Diem comes from the Latin Horace: "While we speak, envious time will have already fled. Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the future". As overused as I may feel Carpe Diem is, I fully believe it's a motto every teacher should adopt. One of the things I felt seeing the difference between high school and college is that high school teachers don't seize the day like college professors do... well, in both cases this observation is not all inclusive, but I felt in high school the majority of my teachers taught to throw information out there, not to help students to seize the day and grow. When information is just thrown out there for anyone to grab it, only select students will. As we teachers strive to not just upchuck information, but to increase the knowledge and understanding of each individual student (as opposed to the students as a class), we will see our society become unlike any other.

Middle School

I've never really wanted to teach middle school. I've never decided I wouldn't teach it, but I've just never really had an inkling towards it. Why? Because the attention span mixed with the maturity level is not something I think I'd work with very well. Not to say that I couldn't work with it, I'm sure I'd make a great middle school teacher, I just wouldn't pick it over high school (without really good reasons).

I had an awesome experience today to go to a middle school and watch a former BYU student - Jay Anderson - teach technology related stuff to middle school students. I was quite impressed with his command for attention, while seeming like the friendly teacher everyone wants to get to know. I felt he had an organized classroom. I noticed though that the amount of time aloted to him to teach seemed too much for the attention span of the middle school kids. My observation was that while demonstrating to the students how to cut sections from cardboard for a project they were to duplicate, he only had the attention of all the kids for the first five minutes. After that the kids in the back of the onlookers began goofing off, especially those behind the teacher. I don't think 1 1/2 hour blocks are appropriate for such an age, but maybe I'm wrong. I'd like to say that this experience changed my outlook on teaching middle school, but I don't think it did much. I recognized that it's not as bad as I like to think it is, but I still don't think it's for me.

Funny I say that though because I know high schoolers are not much older, but I do feel that the percentage of immature students drops significantly, as well as the amount of immaturity. Especially after the students finish their freshman year.

I did think Jay Anderson did a great job though.

TEE Reflection 2 - Oh how little I know...

This week has been a surprise of knowledge. Teaching information I didn't know existed.

When a mother bird fly's to her young, having received a fresh supply of grub, she bends down opens her mouth, and allows the young to eat what she regurgitates up. The young, not even knowing what they're receiving open wide and gobble it up knowing that it'll keep them alive. Through a process known as digestion the young allow the parts needed to filter into their body and become one with them while the rest is dropped on some poor soul's toupee.

I feel often times we view teaching as a mother bird to her young. Teachers go ahead of us and gain knowledge. They then come back and regurgitate that learning to all who will receive it. Some prefer to starve, some take it because they must, while others leap at the opportunity. Those who are the receivers of knowledge don't really understand what is being given, but know that it should serve a purpose. Once the information is in it sits and is cataloged by the brain. Some people are able to retain a good deal of what was taught. They usually are the ones most interested or have a good memory retention. Others like me catalog the things most important and interesting into one area for retrieval, and catalog the rest into a part of the brain that is meant to retain the information, but has a flaw... what is put in usually seeps through cracks in the cabinet or decay over a short span of time. Sadly much of what is taught does leak out.

This week I've come to realize that there is more to teaching than this method of regurgitating and filing. There are multiple teaching methods. As teachers we often times focus on a small few, but we really should broaden our horizons. There are many ways of learning, and not every student is trained to use every method, therefore we should not assume our teaching has to be a specific way. The three main categories of teaching methods are Behaviorism, Constructivism, and Cognitivism. Respectively they are to teach with a focus on rewards and punishments, teach using knowledge previously gained, and teach using observations, hypothesis', and theory (or at least that is what I understand them to be). Not only are there different ways to teach, but there are many people who have performed tests and theorized about what teaching ways are the best, and though there isn't a single best way, there sure are some good arguments out there.

Some individuals who have helped expand the concepts of teaching methods are Elliot Eisner who recognized that a problem could have more than one solution, Benjamin Bloom who taught that teaching is a process and introduced Blooms taxonomy, Paulo Freire who preached that students were not empty vessels, Bandura who showed how influential the actions and personality of a teacher is on the students, and Skinner who believed that people have a fear of failure and that people don't give enough direction. On a side not, Skinner also believed in hands-off parenting and created a skinner box: a box that was lined with paper @ the bottom connected to a roller. He'd put his baby in the box and let the baby do its thing on its own in there. Once the baby "relieved itself" in the box Skinner would roll the paper so that the waste would come out and a fresh bit of paper would be rolled back into place. Not my idea of good parenting but to each his own.

TEE Reflection 1 - My Teaching Beliefs

I am a believer in teaching by visual examples. One demonstration of visual learning that we did in class was the Eskimo flying trampoline. I felt one of the lessons from that example was that there are many methods for teaching, and when we become more creative our teaching methods can improve. We need to be innovative teachers.

I believe that the best teachers are those that care. The book we have been reading focused a couple of pages on making sure you’re not a friend to your students. I agree to some extent. I believe the relationship between a teacher and a student should not be “buddy buddy”, but I also believe that a person retains the most knowledge when they like the person who is trying to do the teaching. A student likes a teacher the most when there is a belief that the teacher cares about the student’s progress and success.

Teachers have the potential to be one of the most influential people in a person’s life. As such, a teacher should motivate students to do things that will promote happiness in a student’s future, including but not limited to the encouragement of continued education, making wise decisions while young, working hard, and becoming involved with extra-curricular activities that will promote healthy living (sports), leadership, socialization (clubs), and future careers.