Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Teachable Moments [1]

Since I'm embarking on this new journey in my life, I thought I'd start a semi-regular feature called "Teachable Moments" wherein I fill you all in on my path to becoming a Teacher.

I had my first real "teachable moment" today in my grade 12 History class. It's only my second week doing placement, so I've spent most of my time so far sitting in the back of the classes observing and taking notes on teaching styles.

The class was just starting and the teacher was setting up a movie ("Amadeus" - based on the life of Mozart, excellent movie) when one of the girls came over to me. She seemed a little hesitant at first, but then timidly said she had a few questions.

Her questions and concerns were all about University, and by the sounds of it she was quite panicked at the thought of attending lectures and having to copy everything down quickly and she was overwhelmed at the prospect of picking a school and career path.

Her fears were the same ones I had when I entered my first year of University, just like I'm sure many of you had as well.

I ended up talking to her and her friend for a good 15 minutes. I covered everything from lectures to note taking, to considering other options like College instead of University and gave them my personal experiences since I did both. They both seemed a lot calmer after my talk, and I walked away feeling very good about myself.

It didn't occur to me that I was assuming a teacher role by giving advice, but that's exactly what I was doing.

My first Teachable Moment!

2 comments:

  1. Good Job!
    I remember seeing people in the back of my classes taking notes and watching the teachers teach. It never occurred to me that they were doing a placement, lol.
    I hope you're having fun :)

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  2. It sounds like you've got the makings of a great teacher! Some of my teachers wouldn't have given me the time of day if I'd come to them with concerns like that, so it's great that you took the time to speak to her.

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