week+3

**__Week 3__**  Author: Chris Seevers Date: 22/3/2009

__**Lecture Summary** __ The topic for this week was “So you want to be a teacher”, the guest lecture presenter being Dr Howard Nicholas. Within this week’s lecture Dr Howard provided examples of the old school mentality of strict teachers “churning ” out educated children at the end of their schooling like in an industrial factory, all the same, with no traits of individuality or passion for learning. A humorous clip to the soundtrack of Pink Floyd’s “Another brick in the wall” was presented showing a frustrated grumpy teacher whose teaching passion had well passed his expiry date, and the cloned students being produced through the education system.

To counteract this example of a bitter and twisted teacher and old school teaching methods, we viewed humorous clips from the movie “School of Rock” and were then presented with some information on Jamie Escalante. Jamie was an immigrant to the USA who trained to be qualified math teacher, whose passion and drive motivated underprivileged students to “reach for the skies”, eventuating in the questioning of student’s abilities after they convincingly passed their math’s exams and were accused of cheating. Further examples of teachers’ views were presented including an example on Carl Di Stefano.

The purpose of the above and other examples provided was to ask ourselves “What kind of teacher do we want to be?” Dr Howard made some very important points that we as pre-service teachers must ask ourselves before we enter the classroom. When asking such questions, it becomes multi-faceted as we must not only ask how will we present information to the students but also incorporate the whole facilitation of learning including teacher-student interaction and the personal relationships required. I found this lecture extremely interesting as I walked out from it with questions that I needed to ask and answer for myself including what I want out of this profession that will also provide a safe environment for students, allowing for greater learning to occur. **__Readings__** The readings for this week were: __ **Reflections** __ I found both the lecture and readings extremely interesting this week. As mentioned above, Dr Nicholas’s presentation raised a number of questions relating to teaching that we all must find answers for ourselves to determine the type of teacher we will be through the eyes of our students.
 * Beginning: The Challenge of Teaching – W.Ayers. 2001, pp1-24
 * The Interpersonal Relationship of the Facilitation of Learning - Rogers & HO.J Freiberg. 1994, pp151-168
 * Contradictory Realities in Learning to Teach – Britzman. 2003, pp25-44
 * When you reflect are you also being reflective? – T.Ryan
 * Teaching and Transformation – B.Neville. 2001
 * Bridging Theory and Practise in Teacher Education – M.Gordon & T.O’Brien. 2007

I found the article “Beginning: The Challenge of Teaching” – W.Ayers (2001) the most interesting of this week’s readings as it highlighted that teaching is not for everyone, that we are more than just the tool for passing information onto students, and that teaching should be a transforming time for not only students, but also for the teacher. The listing of teaching myths presented opened my eyes to the traps teachers can fall into whist highlighting other elements of teaching I want/need to embrace also.

Other readings of interest included “Contradictory Realities in Learning to Teach” - Britzman. 2003 which discussed the struggles for teachers and the required journey of self discovery as to what it is to be a teacher and find an identity for ourselves. I also enjoyed the connection with previous lecture content covered, regarding student/teacher transformations. As Britzman writes “Learning to teach – like teaching itself – is always the process of becoming: a time of formation and transformation, of scrutiny into what one is doing, and who one can become”. I believe this is a powerful quote as it reaffirms my belief that not only students, but teachers also, need to learn with the students and for all parties to obtain many transformative moments within the classroom.