6/21; WEEK 02: RESPONSE TO “IS THE GREAT AMERICAN TEACHER DEAD?”

WHY DON’T STUDENTS LIKE SCHOOL? WHAT SHOULD BE CHANGED?

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I remember when I was in elementary and junior high school, I love going to my school. Aside from meeting with my friends, the stress that I have every time I face tasks related to school is not that much. But when I turned into a senior high school student, my perspective towards school, teachers, and education somehow shifted.

When I was a senior high student, every time I hear someone say “school,” I rarely think of the moments that are sweet or worth remembering. Rather, I often think of the moments that made me anxious, nervous, and depressed. Maybe because there are more depressing moments in school than wholesome ones, and I will be sharing some.

I have a professor that teaches a boring subject. She always uses a monotonous tone for the entire 2-hour discussion. She also faces the board most of the time. Because she is not doing any activities between explanations, I always get bored. I also tend to feel sleepy. In the end, I will have difficulties in distinguishing important facts from her lecture or following with the discussion itself.

Another one is my horrible experience because of the habit of some teachers in conducting surprise quizzes or oral recitations. I can’t forget the time when my professor of a math subject conducted a surprise quiz when everyone is not prepared. Since we are not prepared, we got low scores. This caused me so much trauma to the point that I overthink everything every time I join his class. Because of this experience, I can’t maximize my learnings because of the worry I have inside my brain.

The last thing I will be sharing is that some of my professors before are scary to approach. I think they have built a wall between us. They are strict most of the time. This resulted in us not having a healthy relationship with them.

I am not saying that these characteristics I mentioned a while ago do apply to all teachers. Of course, there are still teachers that do great. The point that I am making here is that some teachers tend to forget the reason why they are teaching, and that is to educate lots of students. Upon observing them, and after reading “Is the Great American Teacher Dead? Principles to Resurrect Meaningful, Effective, and Consciousness Raising Instruction” by John J. Ivers, I realized they are lacking characteristics and they don’t know the things teachers should do to implement effective teaching.

Now, I am going to share with all of you my favorite part of the article that I read. These might be the ten most important elements of great teaching. These can help them improve their teaching experience, as well as the learnings of the students.

References:

• Ivers, J. J. (2012). Is the Great American Teacher Dead? Principles to Resurrect Meaningful, Effective, and Consciousness Raising Instruction. Journal of Invitational Theory and Practice, 18, 49-56.