In so many of my past classes, I have had teachers and
professors use their lecturing time as a chance to speak from their soap boxes.
They tried to paint the world as they saw it without taking into consideration
how their students felt about their opinions or how their students saw the
world. For many of those classes, I felt that I was being talked at, and I wasn’t
active in the learning process. Needless to say, in those classes, I did not
learn much and I felt that they were very much so a waste of my time. And I
know that I am not alone in feeling that way.
What’s worse is when teachers spit out facts and expect us
to remember them without any context. I can remember that “Christopher Columbus
sailed the ocean blue in 1492” because of the rhyme we had to memorize in
elementary school, but the historical aspect of Columbus’ journey is lost on me
because it was never taught in context, there was no “why” explanation to fill
the void and to do this day I have very little recollection on Columbus’
journey, other than the fact it was during 1492.
The classes where I learned the most were in classes where
the teacher was active in the learning process; we as a class thought, and
experimented, and hypothesized, and analyzed together. It wasn’t just a one-sided
experience. We all learned from each other, and I always did better because they
were engaging and insightful. In those classes, I found a love of learning. I
hope that I will be able to instill that same kind of practices into my future
classroom. As a future teacher, I hope that I will be able to learn with my
students and be surprised every day. I want to continue to be a learner and not
just a lecturer at a podium.
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