Comments on: Teaching vs Student-ing

By: Michael Fenton

Michael Fenton — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 05:02:03 +0000

Mike, great comments. The one that resonates most with me relates to the active role we have in our own classrooms, contrasted with the passive role many of us played as students. I started thinking about all of this earlier today when I saw an image on Twitter with this question: “Would you want to be a student in your class?” I literally stopped for a moment when I read that. And while I generally think I would enjoy being a student in my own class, I know there are many, many times where I would be bored, unengaged, etc. So then, there’s the task: Design the type of classroom that I would find engaging, were I still a student. I know it doesn’t mean all of my students will be, but it’s a step in the right direction.

By: Mike Bosma

Mike Bosma — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 22:49:18 +0000

I think this is true for most of us teachers, I know it is for me. It could be for several reasons. 1. As the teacher, we get to do what we want. 2. Hopefully this is true, we teach in a more engaging and effective way than we were taught as students. 3. We know more about mathematics and see the beauty in high school mathematics that we were blind to as students. I know I see the “big picture” much better now so it all seems to make sense better instead of being disjointed facts and problems. 4. We don’t have to do the hundreds of repetitive homework problems we assign (hopefully, we don’t do much of this) and we don’t have to take the tests (only grade them). I’m sure there are more reasons…..