Teacher's Stories

We all have a good story to tell about our teaching experiences. Either good or bad there was something in there that was a lesson of sorts. There are a couple embarrassing ones that I couldn't write here and there were a few sad ones that I wish never happened.

I often find myself in the situation where I am talking to my students and make reference to something that I think will resonate with them. For instance "So that was my first album i bought on cassette tape" I say looking for some nods of approval as if some of them also bought their albums on cassette. Alas no, there first album was downloaded to their ipods.
Instantly old!

Educationworld.com wrote up this great article asking teachers about their experiences. Have a read.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech189.shtml

What's your story?

Feeling like an imposter

What a great book. If you get the chance start thumbing your way through Stephen D Brookfield's, The Skillful Teacher. His years of teaching experience and humor make for a good read.

I'd like to reflect on chapter one. This stood out to me.

"how teachers muddle through careers. They report their work to be highly baffling and chaotic."

(Preskill and Jacobvitz,  2000; Mattos,  2009)

I vividly recall my first day walking into my classroom. If it were a movie scene then I was the teacher stumbling in the door late and sweaty. A stack of papers obscured my face while I tried to straighten my glasses. I don't wear glasses and the stack of paper was a few USB flash drives but you get the point. There was something so tangible about the fear of screwing up and losing the attention of the students on the first day.

But, you know what. I muddled my way through that day and came out in one piece. It really revealed to me the power of the instructor and if you deliver the content believably the whole class just follows along. I'm not saying it's the right way but it helps when you get those moments where they all stare blankly at you.

So, I am in my second year of teaching and I have a lot to learn. One of my courses is a Professional Practices course. Now I acquired this course very last minute and a few of the topics i was required to teach were lets say...muddy? I spent the night before prepping so hard (yes, the night before) I had powerpoints and backup powerpoints, handout and a speech. I was ready.

The following morning I stepped into my classroom and boom...went blank with fear. What was I doing there? I didn't know the topic why would they believe me?  Then it all just worked out. With a little bit of luck and a quick joke and question, a conversation was started by the students on the topic. They answered all my questions on their own without me even posing any of them. It gave me that chance to catch my breath, feed off their conversation and pull out the information I knew was in my head. I came across as more of an expert than I was.

I had a student come up to me after that class and comment on how it really sunk in the important of the discussed topic. I was astounded that I had pulled it off.

I will leave you with this quote from the Skillful teacher.

"I will always feel like an impostor and will never lose the sense of amazement I feel when people treat me as if I have something valuable to offer" (Brookfield,  2015, p.9)

Andrea's Blog- Teaching Adventure

A great blogger and someone who was there at the birth of my child and I appreciate very much. Andrea has some great articles and information on adult learning. Visit her blog at:
https://teachingadventuressite.wordpress.com/

David Ringheim- Reflections of an Adult learner

Check out David's great blog and follow what he has to say about reflecting on learning as an adult.
https://davidringheim.wordpress.com/

Theresa Southam Blog- A wealth of knowledge

Looking for a passionate education blogger please visit Theresa Southam's blog:
http://www.southam.space/

Theresa is a fellow colleague at Selkirk College and is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to anything about bettering yourself as an educator. At Selkirk she leads projects on indigenization, internationalization and student-centred learning

Provincial Instructor Diploma Program Diploma in Adult Education- Link

For great articles and assignemnts from the students of the Provincial Instructor Diploma Program Diploma in Adult Education, visit:https://www.facebook.com/VCCSchoolOfInstructorEducation/?hc_ref=SEARCH

What is it to be a good teacher?

It's funny to sit and think about what makes a good teacher. The first thing that comes to mind are all the bad teachers i had. Why were they bad and what could they have done or even what could I have done to make them a better teacher?

I remember my 10th grade math teacher. Oh, he had it out for me from day one. You see the problem was that I had an older, very rebellious brother. A brother who really got under this teachers skin and unfortunately he just carried on the grudge when he taught me.

It was a lesson of what could he have done differently?
Well, his personal grudge got in the way of him being a good teacher. I don't remember his teaching style...i never really thought to assess that as I was too busy hiding.

Then there are the good teachers. They were few and far between.
There was my second language (Afrikaans) teacher. She was great! She was funny in class and would make sure things were clear. She was patient and there after hours to help. She stood out among the few.

I am excited about taking these PIDP courses. Knowing that I will be going into the classroom equipped with modern techniques to help the learners be successfully. How to deal with group activities and the loathing of them. We live in a very fast evolving society with an ever growing diversity. The are going to be new challenges that we face in this digital era that no other teachers had to deal with in history.

So let's put those phones down for a second and have a read over this article in The Australian Society for Evidence Based Teaching.

What makes a great teacher!

http://www.evidencebasedteaching.org.au/makes-great-teacher/

Engagement and Motivation

The following are my thoughts on chapters 1 and 2 of Elizabeth Barkley's book, Student engagement techniques.

Objective: I really enjoyed reading chapter two, there were a few concepts that stood out to me, however, one in particular struck a chord as I recently had to deal with a student who met the following description. “Overstrivers are also successful students and will take on challenging tasks, but they are not entirely confident in their ability and consequently worry constantly about their grades and performance.” Barkley, E.F. 2010. Student Engagement Techniques. A handbook for college faculty. San Fransisco. Jossey-Bass.

Reflective: The student was particularly difficult to teach. She had been brought up in Saudi Arabia and had it ingrained in her that she was to be the best or nothing. This ultimately made her choose the most difficult projects, however, she dealt with major anxiety which led to poor overall performance. She was a good student but just set her sights far too high. We, the instructors, tried our best to find ways of getting her to succeed in but she would dismiss them and always fall back into her old ways. It was a tricky balance of Mental health care and motivation. I don’t think these patterns will change easily in this student.

Interpretive: This was a tricky chapter to get answers to these problems. I enjoyed how this chapter laid out the various types of learner patterns, success orientated, Overstriver, Failure-avoiders and Failure-Accepting. This resonated with me as I have everyone one of those types in my classes and were two of those students in high school and college. Firstly in High school I was the evader. I thought I would do well but had no value in my classes.

I found this quote very accurate “Evading is likely when success expectancies are high but task value perception is low, that is, student feel confident they can do the task but don’t see any reason to do so and instead daydream…”Barkley, E.F. 2010. Student Engagement Techniques. A handbook for college faculty. San Fransisco. Jossey-Bass. That’s me..the biggest daydreamer i know. All I wanted to do was play music and travel the world. When I returned to college in later life I was the exact opposite. I became the success orientated student that was an over achiever, focused and determines to be the best. I wouldn’t say my thinking has changed yet on this topic so far as I am awaiting the further chapters to give me more insight.

Decisional: I am looking forward to reading about the possible solutions to dealing with the different types of student characteristics. It is obvious that I am going to have the odd student with a challenging pattern and I want to know every technique i can use to benefit the students in their success.

Introductions.

Hello.
My name is Bryan and I am an instructor in a Digital Arts and New Media program in Nelson Bc.
I have been teaching for just over two years. This blog is dedicated to delivering thought provoking information on teaching strategies and my general thoughts professional practices.

I am taking the BC instructors program to bolster my teaching skills. I am looking forward to feeling like I am bringing solid information that will help my students really understand the subject and walk away confident.