Friday, January 11, 2013

Thoughts


     Is teaching an art? I know a number of people who would tell me that teaching is just one of the crafts or trades. First you go through the apprenticeship program which includes classroom teaching of theories, methods and techniques, supervised training and later you continue to master your profession during on-the-job training. Over the years you gain more and more experience and acquire new skills, which finally help you  become Master of your career domain.

     Yet, my feeling about teaching is still a bit different from the picture I drew in the first paragraph. The years of working as a teacher in various and often completely different environments have taught me that it's never enough to just have the knowledge of theories, methods or techniques in order to create a meaningful learning environment. In fact every class is unlike the other and the teacher, similarly to an artist, is shaping this new reality with the tools he/she possesses, the resources and the material (or the students if you will) he/she has to work with. The outcome of this work is never the same, which brings me to the conclusion that teaching is a kind of art.

4 comments:

  1. Dear AiAn,

    I have always linked teaching to pottery-making ~ yes, a kind of art too!

    Just as the potter moulds the clay, we, as teachers, mould children. In fact we either make or break a student by our words, actions/gestures and our written markings and comments on their pieces of work.

    As such, I strongly feel that we have a great and serious responsibility. "A child miseducated is a child lost." (John F. Kennedy)

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  2. Beautiful description of a teaching process Pamela! Let's share more of such thoughts!
    Regards,
    Alicja

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  3. HI Alicja and Pamela

    I am glad to visit your blog and join this discussion. I agree that teaching is not a transactional process but it should be transformational. We, the teachers should always in the same time be the learners. That is why I prefer not to call my job as a teacher. I mostly told my students that I am their learning assistant.
    However, I believe that we all share the same enthusiasm and joy and teaching.
    Happy sharing guys

    Herman

    ReplyDelete
  4. HI Alicja and Pamela

    I am glad to visit your blog and join this discussion. I agree that teaching is not a transactional process but it should be transformational. We, the teachers should always in the same time be the learners. That is why I prefer not to call my job as a teacher. I mostly told my students that I am their learning assistant.
    However, I believe that we all share the same enthusiasm and joy and teaching.
    Happy sharing guys

    Herman

    ReplyDelete