Great struggle as a teacher

Rating: Null/10 (16 May 2000)

Mr.Holland started his teaching career very poorly but as he went on he learned how to become a very good teacher. He wanted to go in and be a dictator, go in and tell the student's to do this and do that. But after speaking to his wife he learned how to make it fun by relating what he wanted to teach to things the students liked. The issue with the girl who was bad at playing the clarinet, he pulled her aside and used his time (i.e. After school) to teach the girl. I think this is a good way of getting students to catch up to the rest of the class. If you truly want to be a good teacher you have to put in the time during your own time. If I have students lagging behind I don't plan to stop the whole class and teach at their level because that is not fair to the smarter students. I would assign different work, give extra help to the students who are finding it tough until they have an understanding and do the same level of work the smart kids are. Mr.Holland was motivated by his wife, I can't recall their conversation but she said something to him that made him tick that he had to teach on a different level. I don't know how to get teachers who have lost interest in the job to become motivated again. Maybe for these teachers it is better if they give the job up and move onto something that they are highly motivated to do. Maybe they could ask the student's how they want to learn it could turn out that their definition of fun is yours and that could re-light the spark that has gone. I believe that this is a true interruption of teaching, of course not all teachers but I would bet that there were and are teachers who are completely frustrated by the job and want to give it in straight away without really giving it ago. That those teachers find something that makes them get up in the morning and really look forward to going to work and being infront of those students. I don't have the magic answer to what that is because I think that it is a personal thing that in no way is the same for everyone. We all need to find what makes us go, we are all here now learning to be teachers so we all have some sort of drive to be here, we just have to keep that drive going when we graduate and get a job and then I think we'll all make excellent teachers. I think I've gone on enough now, if anyone wants to discuss what I wrote I look forward to reading your letter. After all that's what this discussion list is all about. Ken Sinderberry.