Oct. Blog Routman Chapter 1 Simplify Your Teaching Life
This chapter really spoke to me as an educator with words
and phrases like, “enjoy teaching”,” love coming to work”, curriculum relevant
to children’s lives”, and “put the fun back into teaching”. One statement that
stood out the most to me was “Our teaching lives need to become saner, smarter,
and more manageable.”
Wow, has this author been following me around and taking
notes?
Also, Routman talks about how there is no right way or best
way to do this job but that we should be as knowledgeable as we can be in order
to make the best teaching decisions for our students. We as teachers should
know our students’ weaknesses, strengths, interest, and talents and simply
teach the child not the label. Taking time to know who our students are as
people and viewing teaching as art that gets better the more we perfect it.
In my class we have what I call "share time". the students can share anything about themselves from the past or present. I glean so much about the students from this activity and I am able to understand their situations in life much better. Time doesn't permit me to do this each week but when I do take the time for "share time", it always well worth it.
Sometimes it seems like it's hard to love teaching with all of the requirements. However, we are here for the kids. These texts remind us of that constantly. The focus on our course in general is to take time to learn about our students and use that understanding to design our instructional approach to suit their needs. Taking time to let them discuss their lives is important in showing them that we value them as individuals. That's a great start to getting to know your kids. That along with your kidwatching are excellent approaches to learn more about your students.
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