re-schooled

Being in school for the past three days has been a great eye-opener. First and foremost, it's made me realize how irritating teachers can be - how irritating I must be! Seriously, of all the things I took away from this science program training, that is my number one. You may be brilliant as the top of the Chrysler Building (I'm not, our instructor is) but one cannot teach effectively if everything they do annoys their students. Take Socratic questioning, for example. When it goes on forever and a day (because in this particular science process, what you're doing is actually closer to leading the witness than Socratic questioning, as I understand and use it), that's an irritation. The kids do not always want to go where you want them to go. If you let them stand at the helm they will steer the ship toward Legoland even if you personally are aiming for ancient Greece. Therefore, the suggested policy of accepting every contribution does not fly, at least not in a real-world classroom. Sub-flicker: It's hard to be a student in a lecture if you are an attention whore. All you want to do is share out, but all the instructor wants you to do is shut up and listen. Implications for variations on modes of instruction and honoring the learner: many.

Second lightbulb: I am not in my 20s anymore and can no longer attack the refreshments table at any given workshop with total and complete abandon. Really, who was I kidding with that buttered malasada? (Chased by a CBTL hot cocoa and several trips back for chips with seven-layer dip.) Not my waist at any rate. From a chubby toddlerhood to my college freshman affair with Kwik-E-Mart lunches, I've had my rounder moments, but never in this life have I been fat, and I can honestly say that if I keep eating with life-is-a-smorgasbord glee, that I will start to roll in that direction. Which is icky. Sub-flicker: I really love eating. The key is to find ways to eat less (as well as fewer plainly stupid choices.)

Thirdly, it will be many moons before I leave the classroom in pursuit of other endeavors. I used to think it would be very enriching and challenging to be a resource teacher (e.g. math coach) or researcher but 1) I would be (at this point in my life) lost without the kids (they are the whole reason I'm in this - not so that I can talk about or teach about teaching them but so that I can be in the trenches every day) and 2) I really, royally, ruefully suck at statistics. Yup, that was deep. But after Chow-Hoy's research class at CUH and now a 45-minute lesson on standard deviation that taught me nothing but how to use all the good 2nd functions on a TI Scientific, well, I've accepted for now that stats are not my forte. I like my numbers where I can see 'em.

Happy Thursday!