Maryellen Weimer's Blog, page 5

Finding the Inconsistencies

The previous blog post featured two quotes advocating reflection about teaching philosophy and teaching practice. The goal is to discover discrepancies (if there are any) between what one believes about teaching and how one teaches. The problem? It's darn difficult to be objective about one's teaching. We just have too much of ourselves invested in the endeavor to see clearly what we are doing and why. But we aren't blind. We can see if we make a concerted effort. Let me suggest some ways of ...

Keeping Teaching Philosophy and Instructional Practice on the Same Page

"Conscientious pedagogical reflection is necessary to produce a complete, well-developed teaching philosophy. The absence of pedagogical reflection can result in daily instruction that fails to reflect an instructor's teaching philosophy or instructional belief system accurately. In particular, an underdeveloped teaching philosophy may translate into a teaching style full of inconsistencies, characterized by poorly coordinated and designed instruction." (p. 182)

That quote comes closer than...

Five Minutes and Five Techniques

I was traveling again last week and dining by myself in a local restaurant. I had forgotten to bring something to read, but the restaurant, named the The Library, had stacks of old books decorating the short walls between different sections of the dining room. In the stack near my table I found Teacher Education in Transition, published in 1969. The book smelled as old as it looked.

As I skimmed the pages, I found this objective for student teachers: "Given a class which is not interested in t...

Feedback: Negative, Positive or Both?

"Feedback by nature must be negative to an extent if it is to be helpful in improving performance. Much of the feedback that instructors give on assignments is to specifically point out the shortcomings of a student's work and motivate the student toward improvement. Such feedback is intended to be received as 'constructive criticism.' However, although students may say they value feedback in general, when it is about their own performance and by extension themselves, the impact on...

Students' Messages to Teachers

Last week I participated in a beginning of the academic year event for faculty. It included a panel of bright, articulate upper-division students.

From the audience came this question: "What are the things faculty do that you really hate?" "Arrive at class late," one student said almost immediately, "and then offer the excuse that you got caught up doing your email. Doing email? Come on, I lose respect for faculty like that." Another student spoke, "Under required texts, list an expensive...

Stories

Dad died on July 31. He was 98 and it was time, although I don't think that makes the empty feeling any smaller.

 

Dad was very religious, attending the same small Bible church for 65 years, and he preached there regularly until just a couple of years ago. The elder who delivered the message at Dad's funeral service spoke about how Dad loved to tell stories when he preached. I remember them. Mostly Dad retold the Bible stories. He would read the story and then make it real. He never changed...