To go or not to go is the question

I will probably end up not going to school, knowing me. I've kind of slipped back into some sort of high school persona or am I simply the living proof that money makes the world go round (or at least makes most of us at least get out of bed)?

How come I am up already, but already sure of the fact that I will not be at the lecture today? Well, as opposed to how it was way back in high school, I don't choose to stay at home in order to sleep, but because I feel I can do other things instead. Arrogant? Yes. Maybe even stupid - who knows?

Well, the main reason I can't bring myself to go there today is because I cannot stand having to listen to something I feel I could read directly from a book instead and even more so, because I know I wouldn't even open those books again. I have read tons of books on didactic in the past - Piaget, Vygotskij, Freinet and the list goes on and on and it's great to have a clue about different ways of teaching and different views on education, but I can't stand the way we are force fed this at uni.

Don't tell me all this, using a method that you despise. Don't turn your back to half the audience half the time while muttering something inaudible about a book we might wanna read. Don't show me slides I can hardly see and tell me they are funny. I might end up thinking the joke is on me (I guess it is).

I feel I have done all this once and during my nine years of work I can't say that I have found all those books very useful at all. You are in the moment and have to make decisions then and there and when you go home at night, thinking about what you have done and how you handled your day, you don't think in the terms of Piaget and Vygotskij or Socrates.

I think yesterday's lecture with Kernell was excellent - a brief presentation of the main ideas of the most famous educators, not because their names are interesting but because we were offered a buffet of ideas to choose from. We were given a chance to put words to our own ideas and see where they land in relation to the existing ideas and theories.

Monday's lecture seemed more like a history lesson, where as yesterday's lecture seemed like a tool box. I want tools, not history lessons.

When it comes to teaching, I stand by my old credo (which I find from time to time when cleaning the drawers)and when it comes to methods, well - you should stick to the methods you are good at and if you are only good at one teaching method - choose another job. Everybody knows how inspiring it is to listen to a talented lecturer and everybody knows how great it is to participate in a well planned and well organized activity. It's uplifting to participate in a debate/discussion/socratic talk instigated by someone with the talent to arrange one. We all know what it's like when the wrong person is doing the wrong thing, so to speak.

Being a teacher - no, working as a teacher - is to know yourself and knowing yourself means knowing your weaknesses and your strengths and it's not fair to your pupils to subject them to constant experiments just in order to train yourself in different methods. During your teacher training - find out who you are and stick to it when teaching a class. If you want to develop (and you should), educate yourself, go to lectures, workshops and take courses at night, but remember that your pupils only get this chance, those few years. They are not there for you to experiment on. I have had far too many teachers far too keen on trying new things on us, just to realise that it didn't work and that took time away from what we were supposed to be doing.

There something good in each method, the trick is to master it. Find your method and do it well. Don't become your method. The second trick is not go get too comfortable with one, but to expand your range of methods, but doing it without harming others. If you don't appreciate being experimented on, don't do it to others.

Hence, I'm staying at home today. See you on Thursday.