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I've been exercising a bit lately. I've noticed that not long after I exercise I feel pretty good. Happier too. I wish I would have been more active when I was younger.
I've been reading a lot of articles about teaching lately too (at work and in my online class) and it really got me thinking. I was trying to remember the teaching styles of my teachers as I was growing up.
I remember mostly liking elementary school. Jr. high in Missouri was fine. We moved to Utah halfway through eighth grade. I remember having a science teacher that would put up an overhead and we would copy it. That was it. Science had never been less exciting. I made some amazing friends that year but I really hated school.
One thing that really sticks out about high school was the absolute hell of physical education. I was the twelve minute mile. I was the less than one second flexed-arm-hang. I was the volleyball server that couldn't get the freaking ball over the net. I was the gym class dork.
Our principal (my current boss, not my high school principal) recently had us read an article about how if a child chooses not to do the work, a natural consequence of failure shouldn't be an option. That makes sense, right?
In high school gym class, I was a failure and you know what? I never had a "coach" tell me what posture I needed to run faster/farther or what I could do to gain upper-body strength or how to hold/hit the volleyball so it would go over the net.
How is this teaching? Testing without instructing. Failure to reteach when I had little or no success.
The more I think about this the more my blood boils.
Side note-I did have one coach who told me that even though he knew my last name was pronounced Mac-Adam he was gonna go ahead and pronounce it Mac-A-dam. It was just easier. I remember exactly where I was standing in the gym and which direction he was facing and how absolutely pissed and embarrassed I felt on the inside.
I guess it was good in a way because I'm overly sensitive to this. At the beginning of the year if I call a student by the wrong name and don't correct myself they get a piece of candy or a pencil or class money or whatever because it really bothered my that my teacher couldn't be bothered to call me by my name.
Now that I've got that off my chest, what do you think? Were your teachers awesome? Did you have a subject that you only have painful memories of?
4 comments:
my teachers sucked!! at least most of them.....I never thought about the philosophy of testing without teaching.....I think that happened a lot.....oh and gym.....HATED IT! I very often and conveniently forgot my cute purple polyester shorts so I would have to bench it! he he he You do realize though, that the teachers probably did not want to suck, it was the format thatthey had to follow....
I desperately hated geometry! Not really because of the teacher, but because I was so very terrible at it.
I vividly remember when the gym teacher called you Mac-A-Dam. I'm glad you were able to turn it into a positive as a teacher yourself.
As a side note: That gym teacher was also my Drivers Ed teacher and ended up offering to take me camping with his family. Bazaar. Needles to say I did not take him up on the offer.
I did not enjoy gym class. I do not believe it should be graded by ability, but rather by effort. While running the mile I remember lying and said I had run around the track 4 times, when I really had only run around the track 3 times. Shhhh......don't tell.
I have never thought about it that way!! I always felt I did bad in PE because I was a bad athlete. A friend asked me to play adult league soccer the other day and I was too embarrassed. I have never done a pull up in my life, I can't get a ball in a basket or in anyone elses hand, and trying to jump over bars is just ridiculous. I can't remember one teacher ever cheering me on or trying to help me either.
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