Church

This afternoon, i went to the 4pm catholic mass on campus. The preist that spoke was...interesting. He didnt give the best sermon. I still do not really understand what his main point was. He was all over the place, and very random, i could not keep track of what he was saying. But there were some positives about him. He did a pretty good job at relating his sermon to college students. At one point he was talking about trustworthiness and he was talking about a girlfriend he had in college, and the struggles with that (maybe thats why he became a preist). So he was good at relating what he was talking about to the audience. He knew who he was talking to.

Sermon in Church

Last Sunday, i went to church, and the priest talked about the motivation to do good things. It reminded me a lot about the book Drive, by Daniel Pink. I don't remember what the Gospel was... I may have been day dreaming during that part :/. But during his sermon he brought up the reason why the good samaritan stopped for the person in need, and why others didn't. What drives some people to do good, and why do other people lack this type of motivation? My priest did not have an answer for this,but it was interesting to hear him talk about it. He said that we need to strive to make the world a better place, and that we should do things to help people just because its one step closer to a better world.

I also just wanted to comment on the way my church is decorated. The church I go to is a very modern catholic church. It is a big wide open room, with cushioned folding chairs (no pews). But all over the walls are big posters of what the Sunday School kids are learning, the children created these posters, so they are bright and colorful. There are also big sheets of fabric the drape across the ceiling, its very beautiful and quite pleasing to the eye. Because of the way my church is decorated, it becomes a very welcoming environment. When the children come to church, they see their work of art and are proud of it, and i think that it enhances their faith, they see church as a creative and interesting place to be, instead of a boring place where they are forced to go every week.

Efficacy

Self-awareness, confidence, persistence, work ethic and belief in one's ability is connected to becoming a highly effective teacher. In order to be an effective teacher, i think you really have to know who you are. You have to know your strengths and weakness, and you have to be confident in who you are, because that shows through when you teach a class. When you respect yourself, then the students can respect you too. Students also use teachers as a role model. So it's important for a teacher to show that she has good work ethic. When he/she says that they will get the tests graded by Tuesday, then they better have them done by then because that shows the students that it is important to have strong work ethic and that you are going to get things done when you say you are. A very important characteristic of a teacher should be that they believe in themselves. Being positive in who you are, All of these things rubs off on the students. When a teacher believes that the students can pass the standardize tests, then it allows the students to believe in themselves more.

Inventiveness

Inventiveness is one of the most important skills to have in the work force in the 21st century. In the book Global Achievement Gap, one of Wagner's main points is to teach and encourage creativity. Employers these days are looking for people who have creative minds and can bring new and interesting things to their business. I don't think schools are doing a very good job encouraging creativity right now. Cutting music and art programs are doing exactly opposite, they are hindering children's skills. Art is a huge way for children to show how creative they are, and by cutting that program, they have less practice at it. Its the teachers jobs now to incorporate art and music into their everyday lessons. Teachers should show art projects up on a bulletin board, so that the students are proud of their work. Creativity is so important in the classrooms, throughout all the grades, and teachers should do as much as they can do let the creative juices flow through the minds of kids.

Reflectiveness

Teacher find it hard to reflect because it makes them look back at the day and evaluate it. Sometimes you have to reflect on the bad things that happened, and that can be hard for some people. But reflectivness is a key part in the teaching process. Its the only way to look at how you taught something and see what needs to be changed. Sometimes the way you teach something didnt work, and reflecting on it, you can decide how to make the lesson better. Reflection also brings out what went right in the lesson so that you can do it again next time you teach. I reflect many times through a journal. I usually write about what went wrong in the day, its a nice way to get my thoughts out on paper. Just like i reflect on my day at school, teachers should reflect at the end of the day.

Passion!!

Passion in a teacher is what i think as one of the most important qualitys. In order to be a good teacher, you need to have the passion to teach all day everyday, and still love it. A passionate teacher loves the subject they are teaching, and loves when kids understand it. I've had quite a few experiences with passionate teachers. The best one being my 12th grade anatomy teacher. Mr. Burton was one of my favorite teachers because he was so excited to teach us about anatomy. He loved every part about it, he got us motivated to learn all the different parts of the heart and how it worked. He had us learn a bunch of different songs to learn all the bones, and he did the songs right a long with us. Mr. Burton taught with so much enthusiasm and passion, that i was never bummed to go to class, i was always very excited, and that definitly made me learn faster and better. But I've also had a complete opposite teacher. My tenth grade history teacher was about the most boring and least passionate teacher i knew. This teacher was very passionate about highschool football, but definitly not about history. He would give us a worksheet and make us watch a movie while filling out this worksheet everyday. The answers were ALWAYS in the same order on every worksheet. He would just sit at his desk on his computer, or writing out the next football play. I never really minded history, but i dreaded going to this class because it was SOOO boring! So a teacher with passion makes a HUGE difference in how a student learns and feels towards a subject, its very important for a teacher to be passionate towards their job.

Authenticity

To be authentic is to be genuine, and as a teacher, it's important to be authentic. Authenticity is on a spectrum, and you dont want to be on either extremes. If you are too authentic, you come off as cheesy, and i dont think the students will take you seriously. If you aren't authentic enough, then it seems like you don't care about the class, and then neither will the students. A student can tell if a teacher isn't authentic if the teacher doesn't have a good attitude about being at work or if they are too cheesy or boring in their teaching. There is a big change in ramification when the teacher is seen as fake. The students attitude reflects off of the teacher's attitude, so if the students know that the teacher doesn't really care about the subject, then the students don't see any reason to, therefore making their learning drop. It's important for a teacher to be right in the middle of the authenticy spectrum, not too cheesy, but not fake either.