AMA about Teaching -the Art, the Science, and the Profession

[DrMikey]

Aside from standardized test results, what would be an effective method for the objective assessment of teacher performance as well as student performance?

...wisdom... (paraphrased)

I'm not sure I can add anything substantial to what Mikel said...

[DrMikey]

Given how a fair bit of the act of teaching may be a form of performance art, do you feel your drama training has helped your teaching ability in ways that other teachers would benefit from? If so, please expound on that.

On my Bachelor's Degree, my minor area of emphasis is Theatre, I perform for a living, and feel compelled to answer this as well...

Every teacher develops their own performance style, but the truth is: what works for one teacher won't work for every other teacher.

I've drawn heavily upon my performance background in classroom settings, and it's helped me, especially with my wide-ranging, tangential style which I somehow think probably is pretty similar to Mikel's.

Teaching is partly performance, and performances only get better with practice, and not every performer has the same style. "Get comfortable with having an audience," is advice I'd give, but it's only achievable by being repeatedly in front of an audience (or by being completely unabashed...)

[Mikel]

Mikey kind of touched on a problem: we have a job that people seem to think they understand how to do who've never been in front of a class of theirs in their life.

[DrMikey]

To be completely fair: it's not my job anymore.

And a lot of issues I had to deal with/witnessed teaching middle-high school I didn't have/witness while teaching college...

I realized that what I really wanted was probably just an audience, and went looking for one.


But yes: a great many people seem to know what's best for teachers to do without ever having taught.

[tombombodil]

Teaching is partly performance, and performances only get better with practice, and not every performer has the same style. "Get comfortable with having an audience," is advice I'd give, but it's only achievable by being repeatedly in front of an audience (or by being completely unabashed...)

By heck if that aint the truth. There's a HUGE difference between being amazing at something, and being able to do it reliably in front of a large group of complete strangers. And yeah, you have to either just be so comfortable doing it that the chance if failure is small enough to not cause performance anxiety or just be completely unabashed, or both.

I've seen plenty of very talented, very skilled people completely freeze up when a couple people they don't know are sitting expectantly in front of them.

[Mikel]

College doesn't really prepare student teachers for the realities of teaching and student teaching doesn't really prepare people for the reality of having their own class. You can't get them ready because so much is done before the student teacher arrives that helps to make it go smoothly. Classroom management is something that isn't taught well but is vital.

Performance experience helps here.

[Mikel]

Are there any general topic people are wondering about in regard to teaching? Mikey and I could was poetic without the need for specific, focused questions.

Help me procrastinate during my prep periods

[Leoff]

How do you balance the need to learn memory skills with the need to learn how to think?
I'm thinking of a class of boys, aged 8-16. (It's officially 10-14, but, well, the younger one doesn't want to be in the younger class and the older ones just like being there).

[Burning]

What's the most useful thing you learned during your teacher training? What is the least?

[Burning]

Also, is there anything you learned on the job that you think could and should have been taught to you in your education courses/student teaching?