RE: btp is a teacher now
10-14-2012, 09:34 PM
Engagement is a huge part of what I have to do. It's a really precarious balance that I haven't quite figured out. There's that range where students know just enough that they can still learn without being completely discouraged, but don't know so much that they feel like there's nothing to learn.
Videos, lectures, demos, and the like, all help broaden that range, but there are other things too. Knowing your students' names helps. (A feat which after 7 weeks, I have almost accomplished). If there is some sort of personal relationship, if they think that you actually care about them (and it's even better when you actually do), then they'll be much more inclined to do the work, study for the test, learn the material, and get engaged in it.
Of course being able to do that, is a skill. One which I really feel like I've been struggling with.
I've always been an introvert. Someone who never fully goes out into a crowd or a group of people - it takes a very special combination of friends and loved ones to really bring you out. Most of the time you're sitting halfway in the back of your mind, thinking about the next thing, never fully enjoying or engaged in what is going on.
No wait, I'm wrong. I'm taking this down the wrong path. Let's start over.
It's about being able to see other people. That's the skill I find lacking in myself. "Introvertedness" isn't what keeps me from watching others or sensing their levels of engagement. Many introverts pride themselves on being perceptive of other's feelings and attitudes.
No, for me it's a level of self-focus that can be detrimental at times. When I'm under stress or not up to task, I curl up like a pill-bug (mentally, and physically - I have a not insignificant hunch) and blind myself to those around me. When I'm feeling overly confident, I act like I'm on my own tv show. That I am both the star and the audience watching me. All eyes, all lights, all cameras are focused on me. Loved ones have described it as "having my head stuck up my ass".
Left to my own devices, this doesn't do much harm. I may not reach my potential, but few are adversely affected by it. But when there is a group of other people, aka not-myself, then my pomposity begins to cause damage.
There are varying degrees of it. Generally, when I'm at my worst, I'm not aware of it until someone - rightfully - calls me out. Be confident that if you have enough encounters with me, this will happen. It's when I'm in front of a classroom of 30 students, struggling to get through a lesson, that this inability to see much past myself really takes a toll.
I've told my students: "You'll get as much out of something as what you put into it." I think it's a very fair statement, and one which I should have realized sooner applies to far more than classroom physics. Hopefully, as the year goes on, I learn to invest more into my students. Learn to study them and read their reactions. To work the crowd.
Once I've mastered that, then engaging them in the lesson will be so much easier, because I've engaged myself in them.
Videos, lectures, demos, and the like, all help broaden that range, but there are other things too. Knowing your students' names helps. (A feat which after 7 weeks, I have almost accomplished). If there is some sort of personal relationship, if they think that you actually care about them (and it's even better when you actually do), then they'll be much more inclined to do the work, study for the test, learn the material, and get engaged in it.
Of course being able to do that, is a skill. One which I really feel like I've been struggling with.
I've always been an introvert. Someone who never fully goes out into a crowd or a group of people - it takes a very special combination of friends and loved ones to really bring you out. Most of the time you're sitting halfway in the back of your mind, thinking about the next thing, never fully enjoying or engaged in what is going on.
No wait, I'm wrong. I'm taking this down the wrong path. Let's start over.
It's about being able to see other people. That's the skill I find lacking in myself. "Introvertedness" isn't what keeps me from watching others or sensing their levels of engagement. Many introverts pride themselves on being perceptive of other's feelings and attitudes.
No, for me it's a level of self-focus that can be detrimental at times. When I'm under stress or not up to task, I curl up like a pill-bug (mentally, and physically - I have a not insignificant hunch) and blind myself to those around me. When I'm feeling overly confident, I act like I'm on my own tv show. That I am both the star and the audience watching me. All eyes, all lights, all cameras are focused on me. Loved ones have described it as "having my head stuck up my ass".
Left to my own devices, this doesn't do much harm. I may not reach my potential, but few are adversely affected by it. But when there is a group of other people, aka not-myself, then my pomposity begins to cause damage.
There are varying degrees of it. Generally, when I'm at my worst, I'm not aware of it until someone - rightfully - calls me out. Be confident that if you have enough encounters with me, this will happen. It's when I'm in front of a classroom of 30 students, struggling to get through a lesson, that this inability to see much past myself really takes a toll.
I've told my students: "You'll get as much out of something as what you put into it." I think it's a very fair statement, and one which I should have realized sooner applies to far more than classroom physics. Hopefully, as the year goes on, I learn to invest more into my students. Learn to study them and read their reactions. To work the crowd.
Once I've mastered that, then engaging them in the lesson will be so much easier, because I've engaged myself in them.
Spoiler