Role Call

I have to apologize up-front for fear that what I am about to write will make me sound a little crazy.  But, thanks to Dr. Lowell, I now have a split personality.  With that said, here goes.  I used to think that a teacher’s main purpose was to spread their ‘vast amount of knowledge’ to every student they came into contact with; even to random adolescence at the mall or wherever they found themselves.  Now, I truly believe that a teacher’s role is not what it used to be.  I believe that a teacher truly is a facilitator of learning.  Yes, it is still our job to share our knowledge with students, but I believe more and more that we have to teach them ‘how’ to think.  Still give them ideas to think about and then teach them how to think.

Now, when I say ‘teach them how to think’ I just mean encourage them to use their heads and analyze things in a way that is unlike what they are used to.  I think so many students today are programmed to take in information and spit it back out in whatever form we ask for whether it be MC or T&F.  As much as I enjoy a ‘multiple guess’ test myself, I don’t believe they challenge our students enough(My 5th grade daughter just completed a 23 question OER test in SS last week…I was thrilled when she scored a 96).  I personally would rather see one well written Open Response than 100 perfect scores on a MC test.   Although OER questions can be difficult to grade I believe that if a student can navigate their way through one, fluently, it is a better indicator that they truly have understood the content behind it. 

Years ago if you had asked me to compare classroom teachers to online teachers I would have had a different opinion than I do now.  After years of experience with online classes, I don’t believe that the role of a teacher in the classroom is different than that of a teacher for an online course. The medium to which the lesson is conveyed is the biggest difference. There are other minor differences, but I believe they pertain more to the necessary ‘housekeeping’ done in a classroom not so much with teaching itself. 

I have had many different kinds of relationships with  teachers in my past.  Some distant (ironic huh) and others on more of a mentor/protege level. Growing up I remember feeling a type of contempt for those that always had the teacher’s attention, though I was never willing to do just anything to get that attention for myself.  In post-secondary school I began to develop a better understanding of my teacher’s and a more intense value of my education. Maybe because it was costing me an arm and a leg, but nonetheless I took a deeper interest in what I was learning.  It was at this point I began to appreciate teachers and learning.  I began to evaluate different course designs and I knew which ones I liked the best.  So, with that said I hope to be one of those ‘later in life teachers’ the ones that we appreciate now but didn’t appreciate then.  I want my relationship with my students to be like: a parent but not like one; to be like a teacher but more engaging than those I have had; most importantly to be like a 5000 piece puzzle where I constantly challenge every student to keep working and figure things out on their own.