The Art of Teaching

As I get closer to obtaining my degree as a teacher, I spend a lot of time reflecting on the following question,

“What is the Art of Teaching?”

This of course can mean many things to many people. For me, the meaning changes with time and as I learn new things. One of the first things that comes to mind upon reading this question is that a lot of teaching is like theatre. Teachers often have to play various roles. She has to be someone that teaches, experiments, inspires, communicates, entertains, and facilitates. A teacher is a mentor and a mediator. As you can see, educators play various roles, and I have only listed a few. Being able to stand in front of a class and deliver a good lesson is a form of art. While a good teacher may appear natural, that is as a result of endless practice. A good teacher puts forth a lot of time and dedication to her career, taking the necessary steps to prepare herself educationally. Still, there is more. The environment a teacher creates also has a lot to do with the artistic side to teaching. The ambiance that is created has to be conducive to learning. It has to meet the students’ needs and motivate them to learn. I have walked into classrooms that have absolutely blown me away with soothing music in the background, carefully decorated walls, and proud displays of the children’s work. Sadly, I have also walked into classes that demonstrate no patters, lack of cleanliness, and an overall feeling of indifference. This is not what we want our students and their parents to see every day. We want them to walk into a classroom filled with optimism about their futures. As Socrates beautifully taught us, teachers assist the mind to deliver itself of ideas, knowledge, and understanding. In other words, teaching is a humble and helpful art.

Our minds can do powerful things and learn much on its own, it’s just that it can’t do this job as well without teachers. Educators help smooth the process and tremendously enrich our learning. There is a strong connection between the teacher and her students. There is a constant exchange of information, and when the teacher goes that extra mile to make a positive and significant difference in her students’ lives, which should always be the case, there is an unconscious interchange between student and teacher. The process becomes very gratifying.

Answering the question, “What is the art of teaching?” is a difficult one. In a sense, a teacher shows her students how to assess, judge, and identify the truth. A teacher aims at creating independent students. Teachers should not simply share a fixed set of ideas and demand that students learn and follow them. A teacher should encourage students to question, investigate, and learn; hence, becoming independent thinkers.

Thank You, English Professor

Thinking through the memories of my own education in becoming a teacher, a special quote came to mind,

“One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings.  The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.”

My first college class was English. I remember walking in on the first day feeling nervous and somewhat lost. There were people of all ages in the room, and not a single familiar face. Once sitting at my desk I am approached by the teacher. Wearing a huge smile on his face, he introduces himself and hands me the syllabus. He did this for every single student, and literally wanted to get to know all of us. The awkward student/teacher ice was broken, and I was ready to learn.

I remember raising my hand to ask to go to the bathroom. He didn’t call on me, smiled, and waived for me to go while telling the class, “You can always tell who just finished high school.” He said that with a calm, soothing, and slightly silly voice. It actually made all of us laugh, including myself. There was something extremely special about this teacher. We had tons of papers to write in this class and with our permission, he read many of them out loud, but always anonymously. The way this teacher read our papers brought them to life. The assignments he gave us were meaningful and brought about reflection. His lectures were warm and charismatic. You can tell he cared about his students.

I have always loved writing and that’s exactly what I was inspired to do in this class. When he stood in front of our room, he filled the class with excitement. I wanted him to read my papers; I wanted to hear my paper through his voice. He helped all of us grow as students. Yes, he was a brilliant and very qualified professor, but there was more to him. He made sure to make a connection with each and every one of his students. He made the environment comfortable, and also made school fun. The way he projected himself as a teacher further inspired me to become one, and for that I am truly grateful.

Thoughtful Teaching

For my next couple of posts, I thought it would be really nice to reflect on teaching quotes that have stood out to me. A former teacher of mine read this quote to the class one day,

“I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.”

During our program, we have talked about the importance of relevance in our lessons. We have often found that students will become more interested in the subject matter if they feel it pertains to their lives. I love the above quote because it touches such a good point. Unfortunately, students are often given homework assignments which they complete in very ‘robot-ish’ ways. In other words, they go home, do the assignment because it is what they were told to do, and continue on with their lives. Is this really learning, or just going through the motions? I understand teachers have to give assignments for the sake of repetition (so the child becomes confident with the subject matter). However, this shouldn’t always be the basis of the assignment. I am happy to say that there have been many occasions when I have left UWB thinking about lectures and/or class discussions. I think about them while walking to my car, driving home, discuss it with my husband during dinner, and even reflect on it before going to bed. To me, this is learning. Reflection is a great part of the education world. How do we feel about a particular subject? How is it affecting our lives? Is there something we can do about it? Are we allowing something to continue happening?

Now, this shouldn’t be something that occurs only in our college years. This has to be done in all grade levels. I am not a parent, but I imagine it makes for great conversation –along with being very satisfying—to pick up your child after school and have an enriching discussion about something that was talked about in your child’s class. What can teachers do to make this happen more often? Well, let’s be honest. Sometimes there are conversations that occur in our classrooms that weren’t planned for (or even part of the original lecture) but that we see our students really thinking about, or feeling passionate about. While I understand the teacher has to bring the kids back to the original lecture, this ‘special conversation’ shouldn’t be forgotten. If anything, continue it another day, or assign the students a writing assignment about it. This will do many things. Firstly, it will show the kids that their interests are valued in school. Second, it would allow students to write about something they feel passionate about, while at the same time having the kids practice their writing skills. Have the students go home and talk to their families about the subject, and then have the kids journal about it. The point is, homework should never be busy work. It needs to be much more than that. It should of course provide the child with more practice for the lessons being taught in school, but it should also bring about great reflection and relevance in the students’ lives. This is thoughtful teaching.

Using my Spanish Speaking Abilities to Help Others

Growing up in Miami, it was very common to come across teachers that speak Spanish. In some cases, having a teacher that spoke English and Spanish was taken for granted. Upon moving to Washington I realized just how much I can help students whose families speak Spanish. It is very important to encourage and help parents be involved in their child’s education. In the school I am currently in, I have some kids whose parents are highly involved, attending and planning parties, and going to school during the week to work one-on-one with some of the kids in the class who need more help. I also have students who would highly benefit from this type of involvement but whose parents have a hard time doing so because of language barriers. While spending time in this class, I have taken the time to talk to these parents when I see them around school, letting them know what has been going on and offering my assistance. When my internship at the school started, I sent home letters to the parents introducing myself. I made sure to send the letter in Spanish as well, as many of the parents only speak Spanish. It’s sad to say, but many parents are afraid of getting involved in their child’s education because of language barriers. As a future teacher, I want all my students’ parents to feel like they are valuable members of their child’s education. During one of my past internships, I worked with a young Mexican student at Rose Hill Elementary who had difficulty with the English language. I was fortunate enough to work with him one-on-one with subjects such as reading, writing, and math. The teacher let me know of all the tutors the young boy had, he improved the most with me. My ability to speak to him in Spanish provided him with comfort and familiarity. Through my instruction, he learned to read sentences slowly and mentally translate them to Spanish as he read. This let him know if he was truly grasping the meaning behind the passages, and it helped point out which words he wasn’t able to define, and therefore needed more practice with. He made significant improvements.

Keeping with the spirit of technology, there are many tools a teacher can use in her classroom that could help ELL students. In my placement I learned about a website called Brain Pop. On this website you can find great videos on many subjects, as well as quizzes that go along with the videos. What’s even more useful is that the website has Spanish videos as well. The current classroom that I am in is a dual language class, so this site would be very useful. Now, while a non-dual language class may not play many Spanish videos in their class, this site can still be used. If there is a particular subject that is being taught in class, a teacher can tell the Spanish speaking parents to check out these videos at home so they are more familiar with what is being taught in their child’s class. A teacher can become very creative with sites like this, and more importantly, use tools like this website to reach all the students in her classroom.

Check out the site: Brain Pop/Spanish

English Language Learners

In Fox this week, we read about phonemic awareness for English speakers and English language learners. This is something that hits close to home for me for two reasons. The first reason is that I was raised in a Spanish household where I learned to speak English and Spanish at the same time. The second reason is that I am currently observing a dual language first grade class, where the first half of the day is spoken in Spanish, and the second half of the day is spoken in English. As a child, I don’t remember having confusion with the two languages, nor do I remember getting things mixed up, but this was also a while ago. As a bilingual adult, and as someone who is learning how children learn to read (and how teachers can help them learn to read), I can see how being a child and learning how to read and write in both languages can be very confusing. There are extra letters in the Spanish alphabet, and there are different sounds, making phonemic awareness tricky. For example, Spanish does not have the short /a/ that is heard in /bad/, the short /e/ in /bed/, the shirt /i/ in /bid/, or the short /u/ in /bud/. These sounds are new to Spanish speaking students, making it hard for them to develop phonemic awareness and learn phonics.

In my elementary school, I always had Spanish class and I really believed that helped. My teacher expected me and all her other students to try our hardest when we read and wrote in English, and my Spanish teachers expected the same. My parents helped me with my homework, no matter the language. So, having supportive teachers and family is very helpful. It is also important to give them longer amounts of instruction. English learners who learn phonics at a slower pace will benefit from extra and highly focused phonics instruction, especially if started at an early age (p. 225). They will improve in decoding, word reading, comprehension, and fluency.

The first grade students I’m observing right now are learning the different sounds in English and differentiating them from Spanish sounds. Having the day split in two languages is working very well for them. Their minds can get in language modes, and this also gives them an opportunity to practice speaking the language. As Fox mentions, English learners that have a better pronunciation of English sounds have an easier time developing phonemic awareness than those kids whose pronunciation is less developed (p. 225). This is something I am seeing in the dual language class. The English learners whose parents at least speak some English have a much easier time reading and writing in English than do the kids whose family doesn’t speak any English at home. For one, they are not hearing their parents speak the language at home (extra practice) and they also don’t have someone who can help them with homework. The good news is, however, that you don’t have to wait until these kids’ pronunciation of English improves. Phonemic awareness activities can help students pay attention to English sounds. For example, one thing you can do is ask them questions like, “Which doesn’t belong? Man-top-mouse?” This helps draw attention to beginning English sounds, helping the kids learn these sounds. When their pronunciation in English improves, so does their ability to read aloud.

While reading Fox, I came across something that really resonated with me. Fox states that teachers should “adapt instruction to children’s English, language proficiency, culture, and experiences” (p. 230). English language learners will retain more of the information taught to them if they can make cultural connections to it, or read about familiar materials. I remember when I was a little girl, I loved sharing things about my Colombian culture with the class. When kids are interested in the subject matter, they will be eager to learn and work hard in school.  

Fox, B.J. (2008). Word identification strategies building phonics into a classroom reading program. New Jersey, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Phonemic Awareness

I had my last meeting with my kindergarten buddy. I hope he learned as much from me as I learned from him. The last activity we did is called Interactive Spelling. The goal was for my buddy to listen to the sounds I was making and associate them with letters. I would make the sounds by stretching the words. For example, one of the words I used was ‘get’. I would say the word slowly and stretch each sound so that all sounds are clearly heard. I asked my buddy what sound he heard at the beginning and what letter goes with that sound. He wrote the letter down. We did this for each sound: beginning, middle, and end, until each part of the word was spelled out.

I learned a lot about my buddy through this activity. For example, he gets the ‘a’ and ‘o’ sounds mixed up sometimes. One of the words I stretched out for him was cart. He wrote it as cort. He had a harder time with vowels, but with there was one example of his struggle with a consonant. Instead of writing the word ‘had’ he wrote ‘hat’. After a few more examples where he displayed difficulty differentiating the vowel sounds for ‘a’ and ‘e’ I decided to work on two similar words: bet and bat. I had him pay close attention to my voice when stretching the words. He also had a hard time with ‘e’ and ‘o’ so we continued this practice with the words ‘get’ and ‘got’. As we did more examples like this, he became more confident making these distinctions.

In Word Identification Strategies, we have read about the importance of phonemic awareness. It requires children to identify single sounds. Phonemic awareness makes it possible for kids to use phonics to read and spell new words. It was interesting to read that kindergarteners that have good phonemic awareness become better readers than kids that have good rhyme awareness but less developed phonemic awareness. It is more beneficial for kids to learn to identify single sounds than to depend on rhyming to be able to read words. Identifying single sounds will help children better identify words. It will give them the ability to distinguish and manipulate individual sounds, helping them decipher new words. As a future teacher it is great to read about these things now. Helping kids create phonemic awareness will allow them to become better readers, and also help them relieve the stress that accompanies learning how to read, as it would ideally make the process smoother.