Thoughts on Teaching & Learning
by
Dr. Marilyn Jachetti Whirry
National Teacher of the Year 2000
What Can We Do to Strengthen and Improve the Teaching Profession?
When I see a young person who has a burning love for learning, a passion for new ideas and life in general, a desire to help others and thrives on challenges, I know I am in the presence of a potential teacher. I would recommend that this young person enter the teaching profession because only in teaching can we satisfy all of these ideals.
The passion that is a necessary part of teaching - that can be seen in so many new teachers as they begin their careers - is something that must not be allowed to fade. Love for passing on knowledge, for the fire that burns in the child who understands and the recognition of a mind opened is a priceless gift. We must work constantly to keep this aliveness in new and experienced teachers alike.
So that young people entering teaching have the knowledge and resilience they need to succeed, we must first look at the teacher training program of our universities. Here changes and innovations are needed in the way education students are prepared. First, all programs need a course on how to teach each specific subject area. More specific teaching techniques, and more time to learn them, are emphasized for elementary education majors, but not often for future teachers of middle, junior high and high school students. Allowing student teachers into a classroom, after taking a course where education students from all subject areas study how to teach, hardly prepares someone for teaching a novel or setting up a science lab. Classes for each subject can build confidence and help make the earliest years of teaching less frustrating and more fulfilling.
Another way to help prospective teachers is spending more time on a school campus. Sometimes colleges have education students visit a school for a certain number of hours to observe teaching, but they don't truly participate fully in the life of the school. Maybe they can help the teacher they're observing with small groups or individual students, or they can visit club meetings or conduct afternoon tutoring sessions. These types of participation help the person preparing for a teaching career develop an understanding of what the entire school day involves and the depth of activities that occur on a campus. My own feeling is that the college education classes I now teach should be taught at a school site. The more future teachers know about schools, the better prepared they will be to teach with confidence and expertise.
Until these changes take place, we must continue to work at the school level. All new teachers should be given a "master teacher" among the faculty to whom they can look for suggestions and help. In fact, all teachers should work together to discover, share and grow together. In an ideal school, there should be planned time for all teachers to organize and plan lessons, share new ideas and develop new strategies, and build new lessons that are solid, focused and exciting.
What Contributes to Great Learning?
Learning is an active and dynamic process, so we have to develop active classrooms - those where students question, speculate, discuss and discover. We should never compromise the rigor that helps make our students the best they can be. I can guarantee my students that I will help them become great readers and writers if they are ready to work hard.
I believe all children can learn, and grow and reach their potential. I think it is important not only to appreciate diversity, but embrace and celebrate it along with the many differences we have as individuals. I share with my students the passion I feel about the things around me - the wonder at the world, the dizziness that comes with a new idea, the exhilaration for my students and for me at the prospect of success.
Then there is compassion. It is important for students to learn about this so they can open their hearts and minds to responsibilities not only for themselves but for others in the world.Another ideal connected to my life and teaching is commitment. I share my belief in this with my students and, through our discussions, we identify the possibilities of a good life of learning, understanding, and the dealing with the struggle to be more than just average. In the process I hope to make them not only better students but better people. The concepts I mention here can only be developed in a classroom that is open and filled with trust and high expectations.
The set-up of my classroom lets students know I value their interpretations and opinions. Instead of desks, I have tables in a rectangular form where each of us sits to discuss, whether it's in seminars or in small or large groups. This place must be, as I tell my students, a community of learners and a community of adventurers on a search for knowledge - and a search for selves.
