Successful Teaching Reflection/Inspiration
Success story of my teaching career: When I taught English, one of the more difficult units was Shakespeare. Because I wanted the students to appreciate the works of classic drama, I garnered some period costumes that a couple of my fellow educators gave me to help students act out parts of the play. After moving slowly through Acts 1 and 2 of Hamlet, students acted out several scenes in Acts 3, 4, and 5 putting the dialogue in their own words.
Several years after one of those experiences, I ran into one of those students who had become a student at ASU and taking an English class. The professor asked how many students really liked and understood one of Shakespeare's plays. This student said she was one of only three students in the class who raised her hand. She told her peers that it was the way her teacher approached the play by having the students involved in reading and preparing scenes to act out with their peers that impacted the understanding of what had seemed incomprehensible. It's that kind of affirmation that made me realize that my concept of engaging the students in preparing and acting out the play met with success.
Since working as an Instructional Coach for the past three years, I realize how much more is known about how students learn today. I feel privileged that I can access research in this job read supplementary materials, etc. I believe in the truism that we want students to become lifelong learners. This requires that teachers continually learn and share that love of learning with them. I am so thankful for the technology that allows us to access information via the Internet. It makes me realize that the information we know today about how students learn has made education more challenging with the possibility to better serve our students in their quest of becoming educated even when they deny any interest in it.
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