.JPG)
The reason that I
love to teach actually has very little to do with content delivery. Don’t
get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy teaching my Science and Language Arts classes,
but what really gets me excited as a teacher is the continual feeling that I am
forcing both students and myself to take risks and step outside of our comfort
zones.
I am a big believer
in utilizing the prospect of failure and risk taking as a learning opportunity.
After all, people that are willing to take risks and learn from the
results are the ones that are going to truly succeed in life. Each and
every day that I walk into the classroom, I stress the importance of risk
taking and acceptable failure; the understanding that feeling uncomfortable
while doing something new is not a bad thing - it’s expanding yourself as a
person.
The longer I teach (I
just finished my fifth year), the more I am coming to believe that teaching has
very little do with knowledge of facts. Students know that facts are easy
to obtain via a quick Google search. I have found students crave learning
opportunities that mimic authentic problems in as many situations as possible.
It is this understanding which makes me excited to develop new
learning scenarios that ask students to expand their horizons. This
culture of risk taking is what has allowed students to be confident enough to
stream live speeches to the Internet, create a house blueprint for critiquing
by local architects, and cooperatively design and build bottle rockets for
launching into the air.
These type of
projects are the vehicle I choose to use to teach content knowledge while
simultaneously mentoring students in learning soft skills like cooperation,
leadership, and empathy. What I love about teaching is the feeling that I
am teaching more than simple content - I am teaching students how to problem
solve in their adult lives.
I knew that my “life
prep” philosophy of teaching was catching on with the students this past year
when one of my sixth grade students gave me the best, unintentional compliment
that I have ever received as a teacher. The students had been at lunch,
and upon returning to the classroom, one said, "Hey Mr. Weyers, my friends
were talking today at lunch about how most teachers say they are preparing you
for the next grade. I told them I disagreed. My teacher is
preparing me for life."
Author: Matt Weyers
6th Year Teacher
Byron Minnesota Public Schools
6th Grade
Tell us why you love to teach for a chance to win a Target gift card for your class!
Facebook: Haystack EDU
or submit a blog post in 500 words or less about why you love to teach
No comments:
Post a Comment