teaching as failure (don't worry, that's a GOOD thing!)Watch this short video about teacher reflective practice.
In it, you'll see Dylan Wiliam talk about the need for continuous development for ALL teachers, the teacher-research approach! (I have just discovered several other videos by him--interesting stuff!) For me, his comments--these two minutes-- have fundamentally and forever changed how I think about teaching AND writing. Watch! And comment!
6 Comments
Kaila Morris
4/19/2017 05:28:21 pm
I agree wholeheartedly with Dylan William's approach to teaching. Teaching should be a reflective process. As teachers we should take the time to reflect on our practices day to day and ponder about the ways in which we can improve our practices. William says if we are not failing daily, then we are not paying attention. His reasoning is as teachers, we can teach our hearts out, but if we are not reaching the students and if this is not reflecting in their grades, then something is wrong. This is when it is time to reflect on how we can make our teaching practices better. I love William's words and they are very encouraging for an upcoming teacher like myself.
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Dena Stanley
4/19/2017 06:48:00 pm
This video referring to the difficulties of teaching opened my eyes a lot. For starters, I appreciate his honest approach on accepting failure; failure is part of the job description! Teaching is extremely difficult, and as he states in the video, “Teaching is so difficult that a lifetime isn’t long enough to master it.” Teaching is a lifelong journey and a continuous challenge, and a good one at that! Personally, I would like a job where I am continuously challenged to improve my craft for my ever-changing groups of students. We all know that teaching is never boring. I liked his take on the “perfect lesson,” because far too often teachers in training think that they will plan the perfect lesson and all will go well—wrong. As he talked about, even with a lesson that we as teachers thought was perfect, when it’s time to take up the notebooks, perfection will not be the result. As teachers we must be practical and stop expecting perfection. Although, that does not mean we can’t have high hopes and standards for our students and ourselves. Towards the end of the video, there was a quote that stood out to me. The quote read, “Every teacher needs to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better.” This is critical to anyone’s philosophy of teaching, improvement should always be a goal for a teacher. As teachers, we can always be better due to the constant change in our field. We must adjust and work to bring out the best in ourselves for the sake of our students. It is okay to fail! We just have to focus on improvement!
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Kaitlyn Cannon
4/20/2017 02:43:09 am
I appreciate that this man has the ability to stand in front of (presumably) a bunch of teachers and say that teaching is a job that in and of itself means failure. He's not wrong, though. Because the classroom is constantly changing and we're exposed to students of all skill levels and learning needs, there is never a moment in which we will adequately fulfill our duties as a teacher for each and every one of those students. There's always going to be someone who walks out of our classroom who needed something more or something different. As teachers, it is our responsibility to continuously learn about our students and adjust our instruction methods to fit their needs. This is an impossibly daunting task, but one that needs to be done nonetheless.
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Alana Reynolds
4/20/2017 03:26:46 am
When we talk about the concept of "progress over perfection," it's important that we apply those ideals not only to our students, but also to ourselves. As people, we fail daily in our every day lives, so naturally we are going to fail daily as teachers. But failure is essential to learning, and as teacher-researchers, we are constantly learning and reflecting and improving ourselves and our practices. Because teaching is not a rule following practice, and because all of our students are not the same, there will always be something more we could have done for them that we didn't do. What separates great teachers is that they recognize these failures, they reflect on them, and they work to improve themselves. Olympic athletes never stop training to be better. Likewise, teachers should never stop training, learning, and striving to be better. Teaching is not about perfection. Teaching is about progress. I completely agree with everything Williams says here.
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Dalvin Armstrong
4/20/2017 04:22:42 am
This Video has truly opened my eyes in a way that makes me think about how some schools are not focuses on the quality of teachers but the test scores and school grades. We need to continue this process of improving and enhancing each teachers skills. I think just because you are a veteran teacher over a first year teacher doesn't mean that you are exempted from professional development. The speaker said,"If you don't fail daily, you must not be paying attention." If we are not taking the time to enhance our skills as teachers or gaining more knowledge than we are doing a disservice to our students and oursleves. Every teacher has difficulties, and as a community or district we must take those difficulties, and make them our expertise and strengths.We know that effective teachers have a direct influence in enhancing student learning. Research says, teacher quality supports the fact that effective teachers not only make students feel good about school and learning, but also that their work actually results in increased student achievement. I appreciate this man and his profound words, and as an aspiring educator we must continue to strive to achieve and want the best for our students until we die.
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Abbi Griffin
4/20/2017 07:33:48 am
As students, it is so hard for us to accept the concept of failure. People may fail every day, but it is still incredibly difficult to accept failure. However, it is important for us as teachers to remember that everyone fails at some point so that we can not only cut our students some slack but also ourselves. In the grand scheme of things, the failures that we pick out of our lives as huge, overwhelming disasters are really mole hills, not mountains. However, we still have to learn from these failures so that we can better serve our students. This is where we must learn to reflect constantly so that we can continue to learn.
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