Reflection #7

High school observations…

Our visit with Braden Boss was interesting. He had a rather unorthodox approach to teaching, grading, classroom conduct, and student expectations. One thing he focused on was student progress as opposed to student achievement. Individual project grades were given on a traditional scale (i.e. if you did a mediocre job, you’d receive, say 10 out of 20 points), but class grades overall were given on a scale of improvement. This means that if your first assignment earned only 5% and your last earned only 20% but you showed steady growth, effort, and improvement, you would receive a high grade in the class. I won’t summarize all his views here, but I thought this particular aspect of his teaching to be interesting. After all, progress is important and should be rewarded, but in the end, the real world cares more about how good something is, and not simply if it’s better than something worse. I still am not sure how I feel about this system.

Something else I noticed was a significantly higher general level of disinterest among students and teachers alike. However, this was not the case in each classroom. Between the two high schools, I was able to visit four classrooms and I noticed a very clear pattern: the students’ level of interest in the material directly reflected the teachers’ level of interest in the class and the students. The more indifferent the teacher was, the more indifferent the students were. On the other hand, it was clearly visible that when the teacher showed a great deal of interest and passion in a class or a particular part of a class, the students’ interest levels would rise accordingly. This may seem intuitive but seeing this idea in action helped solidify for me the importance of teaching with the heart as well as the brain.

What does this mean for me? Well, according to what I learned from Gong, I am at all times both a learner and a teacher. This bit of knowledge – that is, that teacher interest affects student interest – can significantly impact how I perform in both of those roles. For example, as a learner, I can rise above the wave of disinterest among students the next time I have a boring professor (not Geoff). I can prepare myself mentally to learn even when a teacher does not show a particularly high level of interest in my individual success. As a teacher, knowing how my attitude affects my students, I can prepare to teach in a much more heartfelt and engaging manner. I can gauge what the students’ reactions to my teaching will be, based on my own observations.