On Learning
I realize that I'm at work and should probably be busting racists, but my partner is out of town, so I get to do a motherload of research. One of the first things we're meant to do before we start is check the news. If we're working in NY, living in Los Angeles means I don't know what their local news is like, their weather, their power outages or freak blizzards. We're meant to integrate seamlessly, so we have to get our shit straight.
So I'm looking at news, reading something about Russian spies, and then I see something about student evaluations. This is the second, or follow-up, to the intial article, but all sorts of reader feedback is interperesed throughout. Here is an example of a professor's thoughts on student evaluations:
“Sorry kids, you are not the authority in the classroom. Me Teacher. You student. Me Teach , you learn. End of discussion . . . Education is not a business. You are not my customer. My classroom is not Burger King. You do not get to ‘have it your way.’”
I was a student for a long time and at every level of education that's offered in the U.S. I currently teach at varying levels of education, and I can say one thing with certainty: whoever the fuck it is that said this deserves to be stripped of their classes. Being a teacher doesn't make you a fucking genius, it doesn't make you better than anyone else. Being a teacher, a real teacher, means you've been given a gift. Do you know how miraculous transmission of thought is? How we make our ideas known, how we are able to communicate effectively and instill our own ideas and knowledge in another person... it is incredible. Just because you can stand at a whiteboard or behind a podium, just because you have a degree or a doctorate, just because you've read a bunch of bullshit theory and spent a couple years sucking a lot of academic dick does not--DOES NOT--mean that anyone understands what you're saying up there, scribbling away. You can lecture until the fucking cows come home, it doesn't mean any student in your class understands or has learned anything. And isn't that a teacher's job? TO TEACH? There are such skewed perceptions of what actual teaching is, and it has very little to do with standing in front of a room of kids and vomitting out your extensive knowledge. There is something else that takes place.
What is a class, is school? Is it a teacher and students and chairs and desks and chalk? Is it uniforms and a briefcase and 100 exams? Teaching, like everything else, is more than the sum of its parts. Education might not be a business, but it is something more than a surgical or clinical prodecure. Students might not get to "have it their way," but as teachers we need to make sure that we're doing our best to make sure they see it and understand it our way instead of just leaving them to drown in their own confusion.
Sure, you're going to get a jackass kid who hates school and hates you and wants nothing more than to smoke pot all day. As a teacher, it's up to you to make it happen, to teach the unteachable. When evaluations roll around, if you've done your fucking job, then you have nothing to worry about. Even if the kid is pissed at you (which, if you've really taught him, he won't be), whatever negative, untrue thing he writes down at evaluation won't matter if you've done your job by the rest of the class.
...But if you have a class of 30 with 30 evals that say you're a rude bitch who can't teach, maybe it's time to sit down and think about why your students hate you, why your students aren't learning. Are you really teaching? If everyone is failing and no one is coming for help, are you really teaching? It's more than just going through the motions. I've seen Mr. Holland's Opus and Freedom Writers and Sister Act and Dead Poets Society and Dangerous Minds. If you've ever taught the unteachable, worked hard and taught hard and made people understand, really taught, been a teacher... it's like that. It's exactly like that, and it can be like that every fucking time if the people that are supposed to teach us just teach us.
Rant rant rant. Anime Expo starts tomorrow. I'm going to be there on the 3rd and 4th, Saturday and Sunday respectively. On Saturday I'll be dressed as an unidentifiable leaf ninja from Naruto, and on Sunday I'll be dressed like my usual cheap prostitute self. Unlike last year, this year my name badge actually says "Versace Frolic," so if any lurkers want to hang and find out how A Lesser Beauty ends, feel free to approach me and ask. I swear I'm only half as bitchy and psychotic in real life.
xoxo,
Gossip Girl
So I'm looking at news, reading something about Russian spies, and then I see something about student evaluations. This is the second, or follow-up, to the intial article, but all sorts of reader feedback is interperesed throughout. Here is an example of a professor's thoughts on student evaluations:
“Sorry kids, you are not the authority in the classroom. Me Teacher. You student. Me Teach , you learn. End of discussion . . . Education is not a business. You are not my customer. My classroom is not Burger King. You do not get to ‘have it your way.’”
I was a student for a long time and at every level of education that's offered in the U.S. I currently teach at varying levels of education, and I can say one thing with certainty: whoever the fuck it is that said this deserves to be stripped of their classes. Being a teacher doesn't make you a fucking genius, it doesn't make you better than anyone else. Being a teacher, a real teacher, means you've been given a gift. Do you know how miraculous transmission of thought is? How we make our ideas known, how we are able to communicate effectively and instill our own ideas and knowledge in another person... it is incredible. Just because you can stand at a whiteboard or behind a podium, just because you have a degree or a doctorate, just because you've read a bunch of bullshit theory and spent a couple years sucking a lot of academic dick does not--DOES NOT--mean that anyone understands what you're saying up there, scribbling away. You can lecture until the fucking cows come home, it doesn't mean any student in your class understands or has learned anything. And isn't that a teacher's job? TO TEACH? There are such skewed perceptions of what actual teaching is, and it has very little to do with standing in front of a room of kids and vomitting out your extensive knowledge. There is something else that takes place.
What is a class, is school? Is it a teacher and students and chairs and desks and chalk? Is it uniforms and a briefcase and 100 exams? Teaching, like everything else, is more than the sum of its parts. Education might not be a business, but it is something more than a surgical or clinical prodecure. Students might not get to "have it their way," but as teachers we need to make sure that we're doing our best to make sure they see it and understand it our way instead of just leaving them to drown in their own confusion.
Sure, you're going to get a jackass kid who hates school and hates you and wants nothing more than to smoke pot all day. As a teacher, it's up to you to make it happen, to teach the unteachable. When evaluations roll around, if you've done your fucking job, then you have nothing to worry about. Even if the kid is pissed at you (which, if you've really taught him, he won't be), whatever negative, untrue thing he writes down at evaluation won't matter if you've done your job by the rest of the class.
...But if you have a class of 30 with 30 evals that say you're a rude bitch who can't teach, maybe it's time to sit down and think about why your students hate you, why your students aren't learning. Are you really teaching? If everyone is failing and no one is coming for help, are you really teaching? It's more than just going through the motions. I've seen Mr. Holland's Opus and Freedom Writers and Sister Act and Dead Poets Society and Dangerous Minds. If you've ever taught the unteachable, worked hard and taught hard and made people understand, really taught, been a teacher... it's like that. It's exactly like that, and it can be like that every fucking time if the people that are supposed to teach us just teach us.
Rant rant rant. Anime Expo starts tomorrow. I'm going to be there on the 3rd and 4th, Saturday and Sunday respectively. On Saturday I'll be dressed as an unidentifiable leaf ninja from Naruto, and on Sunday I'll be dressed like my usual cheap prostitute self. Unlike last year, this year my name badge actually says "Versace Frolic," so if any lurkers want to hang and find out how A Lesser Beauty ends, feel free to approach me and ask. I swear I'm only half as bitchy and psychotic in real life.
xoxo,
Gossip Girl