Scholarship of Teaching

There are many different things that come to mind when reading Bender and Gray. The biggest idea/concept that comes to mind is that a teacher must be dynamic. They must be willing to change from day-to-day, hour-to-hour, minute-by-minute. If you refuse to change, you will be left behind.

A teacher must also be willing to hear feed back from students. After a lesson in my classroom, you will occasionally hear me ask, “Well, how do you think that lesson went?” And I encourage their comments whether they are negative or positive. This, in the end, makes me a better teacher. If I consistently think  that my teaching is awesome and wonderful, I’m not really going to get anywhere and I won’t be able to grow into a great teacher. In a sense, I’m forming my teaching to cater to the needs of the student, not my needs as a teacher.

A teacher must also be able to admit mistakes. We  are human. We make mistakes. And it’s ok. We plan an awesome, kick butt lesson, and then it flops. Oh well, admit your mistakes and move on. There have been many times where I have simply failed at a lesson. I can remember last year I had planned a good lesson discussing the stages of production. I tried to make it as interesting as possible and when I went to present it, the lesson was terrible. I felt like I wasn’t getting the message through to them, but the kids didn’t care. I told them it was terrible. I apologized and we moved on. I highly doubt they will remember their year with me as, “The Day of the Terrible Lesson.”

Teachers must also be thirsty for information. I want to know what other teachers are doing. I want to know what fun, interactive lessons they are planning. I want to know who the students think is the best teacher. When the kids tell me about a great lesson or idea another teacher had, I will look them up personally and ask if I can borrow their idea. I also encourage teachers to steal my ideas. I have come to realize that a few of the younger teachers in the school are a breath of fresh air because of the new innovative, technological type of lessons that we bring.

Finally, and simply stated, we must keep up with current research and information provided to our field. We are and should be life long learners. Look how much the world has progressed since the ’60s. We need to keep up with current research and technology to enhance the learning and effectiveness of our teaching.