THE REAL REASON TO
TEACH
Oct 4th 2008
View PDF | Print View
by: TomKrause
Total views: 1776
Word Count: 548
Love: The Real Reason to Teach
Motivation can come from many sources. People can be motivated by
fear. They can also be motivated by money. Competition can also
motivate. True motivation, however, comes from doing what one loves to
do.
The love of teaching children is the purest form of motivation in
education today. Leadership should recognize that quality in teachers
and be wary of anything that destroys that desire.
As I come to the close of thirty years of teaching, I find myself
having the same thoughts that so many of my veteran colleagues
conveyed to me throughout the years. “It is not the love of teaching
that burns out in a teacher, it is all the other stuff.” Sad to say,
but I have to agree.
Teaching used to be about children. It has become about proving
ourselves. Competition against some standard has become more important
than guiding children to adulthood. It once was enough that a child
walked out of class feeling like they learned something. Today they
have never learned enough.
When children play a game they never can win, they stop playing. Many
teaching staffs today become apathetic and passive aggressive because
they feel like they can never do enough. Constant pressure to “raise
the bar” has led some educators to adopt a “bunker mentality”, hiding
from administrative mandates. More and more is added to the plate with
nothing ever being taken off. Good teachers know in their hearts that
the most important focus of their job is to help students reach their
potential. When students reach their potential that should be enough.
It used to be that the greatest goal of education was a happy student.
Now it is a test score. We have become so focused on proving ourselves
to people who don’t really matter to our kids that we have forgotten
our kids who should really matter most.
In our attempt to dot every “I” and cross every “T”, we are creating
institutions instead of communities. If we are going to take the
humanity out of education then we need to replace teachers with
computers and relationships with ipods. I believe in our ever
increasing high tech world, students are looking for that human spirit
to connect with.
Education is not about competition, it is about nurturing children.
Children are not only interested in how things work; children are also
interested in how life works. That is a lesson they cannot learn from
a computer or curriculum. Self worth is only gained through
relationships with other human beings. Teachers who love their
students instill that worth. When that bond of worth exists learning
is enriched.
My first ten years in education I taught the curriculum. My second ten
years I taught children the curriculum. My last ten years, I just
taught children.
As I wind down my career, I know it is not about the money. I know now
it was not about competition or fear. It is the love of children that
motivates for thirty years. I only hope educators in the future do not
become so overburdened that they burn out on teaching before they
achieve that same realization.
Tom Krause
Nixa R-II School District
Nixa, MO
www.coachkrause.com
Educational Motivational Speaker
Homework Study Skills Lessons From A
Football Quarterback
Oct 3rd 2008
View PDF | Print View
by: susank
Total views: 386
Word Count: 897
This time of year, my blood runs green and gold for the Green Bay
Packers. My father grew up in Wisconsin during the Vince Lombardi era.
I grew up in Detroit where people only complain about the Lions. I
don't think it was ever a decision... I was born a Cheesehead.
Last night, I watched the Packers "new" quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, in
his starting debut. The drama was high... it was not only the first
game of the season, but the first Monday Night Football game of the
season. The Packers were playing their bitter rivals, the Vikings, at
home in historic Lambeau Field with more than 80,000 fans to cheer
them on. It was the first game in 15 years that Brett Favre has NOT
started for the Packers. A new day was dawning for the Packers and,
while I still admire Favre, I was personally rooting for Rodgers
knowing all of the pressure he was under.
Late in the first quarter, the Packers were literally a half yard away
from getting on the scoreboard with a touchdown. It was 4th down,
Rodgers had the ball and defenders were coming at him quick. He was
standing as still as a statue. I could hardly bear to watch. "Throw
the ball! Throw the ball!" I screamed. At the last second, he threw
the ball, the pass was complete and TOUCHDOWN GREEN BAY!
It was a great play and I was thrilled for Rodgers, the Packers, the
80,000 fans, and my dad!
Later, during half-time, the commentators explained the exceptional
skill behind Rodgers' play. A skill, they say, he learned from the
legendary Favre. Rodgers kept his helmet straight ahead towards the
end-zone, completely perpendicular to the line of scrimmage, and used
his peripheral vision to scan the field. This approach kept the
defenders in the lurch because they could not anticipate if he was
going to go left or go right, which gave Rodgers a big advantage.
This tactic explains why Rodgers appeared to be as still as a statue;
why the anticipation of that play was almost more than I could stand.
To the untrained eye, it did not look like he was doing anything; like
he was just standing there and at the last second threw a "lucky"
pass. Instead, it was a brilliant play. It was all about strategy!
Strategy is a tricky thing... you don't always know when someone is
being strategic. The process of using strategies often remain
invisible to the untrained person but they generate remarkable
advantages. Strategy has its place in many different circumstances: in
sports, on the battlefield, in the business world, and even in school.
Most students, and their parents, are surprised to learn that there
are strategies that can make homework and studying easier, more
effective, and even more enjoyable.
In the game of "school-work," time is often your opponent. Homework
and studying can take hours, which make these tasks so dreadful.
Relevance of High School
Mathematics to the Real World
Aug 25th 2008
View PDF | Print View
by: kdowne
Total views: 3279
Word Count: 468
It is an age old question in math classes: "Why do we have to learn
this? When are we ever going to use this in our lives?"
There is of course, a very fine answer to this that any teacher can be
proud of. It consists of something along the lines of : What we are
learning in class, whether it be how to factor a quadratic, how to
graph a sine function, or anything else, is a building block to
further education and to eventually lead to awesome applications in
engineering, science, finance, etc.
This answer does not satisfy the student. That is, of course, because
the student is convinced that they have no interest whatsoever in
going any further than Grade 11 math.
So then, this is what we say to the student: "It is not relevant to
you, and you will never use this in the real world." But don't leave
it at that.
Let's face it, most students may not ever use the subject for any
practical purpose in their career. Sure, math is important day to day
when balancing your cheque book, and taking change at the
store............ but here is the real purpose for it.
Math, like no other subject, prepares students for the everyday
problem solving that they need to succeed in the real world.
Now, in life, we all face many problems each day, where we are
required to make complex decisions. The school system can't possibly
simulate all of the different things that are going to happen to all
of the different people to prepare them for life. It can, however, put
the students in a situation where they don't know what to do, and they
have to figure out what they have to do, rather than memorize a
solution. Math does this. It forces the student to follow some logical
rules, and solve problems in a step by step manner.
If you are looking for a way to motivate yourself to succeed in
mathematics, try this: Make your math class like a training ground for
the real world. See the questions as problems that need to be solved,
and you are given the tools to solve them. It is a simulation for real
life. Start to have fun with the questions, looking at homework as
practicing the skills you are taught.
Your brain needs to be exercised just like your muscles, and math
class is the gym where this exercise takes place.
So you may not use the actual topics you learn in the real world, just
like a hockey player doesn't actually lift weights in a game. But your
brain is getting stronger because of the math, and this will help you
unlock more of your mind and your potential for success!
Kevin Downe
www.mindovermath.ca
|
Decipher That Code & Read! Part Four
"Decipher That Code & Read!" Part Four of Four: A Plan Because of the
failure of some reading programs and the bad report card the NCLB
program received, recently, many people have become very, very
skeptical of our education system, including teachers, in the US.
Congress did also cut the NCLB budget due to budget constraint
For the Love of Learning: The Importance of Alternative Assessments in
Education
Introduction According to the National Association for the Education
of Young Children’s (NAEYC) developmentally appropriate practices
(DAP) position paper (1997) detailing how to assess children’s
learning and development, assessment “recognizes individual variation
in learners and allows for differences in styles and rates of
learning” (p. 14) and “decisions...such as enrollment or placement are
never made on the basis of a single assessme
THE PERCEPTION OF TALENT IN PIANO PLAYING: AN INVESTIGATION OF VIEWS
BY ESTABLISHED GREEK PIANO TEACHERS
Georgia G. Markea Post-doc and PhD in Music Education, University of
London, Institute of Education School Adviser for Music Education
Choosing a homeschool language arts curriculum for your family
What does a homeschool language arts curriculum need to have to make
it useful, interesting and comprehensive? Are there language arts
lesson plans which I can use over a number of ages? Well, firstly we
need to consider what language arts lessons makes a language arts
curriculum? It would need to include reading, writing, speaking and
listening. Getting to finer details, it would need to teach writing
skills from handwriting to written sentences and paragraphs.
The Kidnapping of Summer Break
The Kidnapping of Summer Break By Adina Ciment It seems
First Lesson of the School Year: Just Be You
Each year, as we enter August, our thoughts turn away from suntans and
beach balls and toward backpacks and book covers. With another school
year, just around the corner, many children will soon face an i
Decipher That Code & Read Part One
:"Decipher that Code & Read!" Part One Phonics, An Overview: With the
“No Child Left Behind” Law in somewhat chaos, it underscores the
problems often faced In any plan for Teaching Reading. The phonics
system, however, has been used successfully in the USA and Europe for
many years to teach childre
The School Bully Deserves Help
Vancouver, WA – 30 Percent of children in the United States are
involved in school bullying according to National Youth Violence
Prevention. That is 5.7 million American children who either are
bullies or are picked on at school. “We’ve forgotten to raise our kids
with kindness,” says Aaron Taylor, father and author of the new book
“The Pumpkin Goblin Makes Friends.” Taylor could blame the changing
dynamic of the American family or he could point the finger at the
internet for m
Disrespect in the Classroom
Disrespect in the Classroom |
