01/13/22; Week 02: "Is the Great American Teacher Dead?"

 "Is the Great American Teacher Dead?"

    Are we really doing and giving our best in order to help our students to learn? What are our motivations while we are teaching? Do we really know the importance of delivery? In the article, Is the Great American Teacher Dead? by John Ivers, we found the answers to these questions. 

Around 360 BC in Athenas, Demosthenes had failed on his attempts at public speaking. His friend, Satyrus, asked him to recite some passages from Greek literature in a more powerful and compelling way. After that, Demosthenes realized how important is delivery and became a great character at the speaking career. 

 Demosthenes (384-322BC)

    This is where we can learn from the great power of delivery in speech. In the same way, "it illustrates the concept that education is more than just exposing people to the facts. It is an acquisitional process that without proper delivery system, tends to fall flat" (Ivers, 2012, p. 49). Learning is more than just talking, is an invitation to change. If we feel the same after a lesson, that must say that it did not have any effect in our way of thinking, and we have failed. 

    When E. L. Cerroni-Long, an Italian anthropologist, spent time at an American university, she felt that U.S. universities were replete with competitiveness, lack of compassion, cultural casualties, and psychological insecurity. When I read this part, I could not but just think about how the universities are in my country, and being honest, it is the same. It is difficult to find motivation in an environment of insecurity, fear, and where thinking different is seen as a bad thing. I do feel the same when I am at college, I do not feel safe, I feel threatened. 

    So, what can be done? How can we resurrect the great teachers that might be dead? We must take the responsibility to be real educators, as mentioned, we must go on a mission. We teachers could at least do a little better in our deliveries, depth, and demeanors.  

    As teachers, "we can inspire students with attention-grabbing ideas, testing general assumptions, tackling captivating problems, and examining the paradigms that inform social reality" (Ivers, 2012, p. 51). In that way, we are encouraging to think a little bit deeper, to really question all the things that are around them, and how a new idea will help them to overcome real problems. 

     In that way, we can go through the Transformative Education. This type of education is what it is, transformative. It is replete with deep, personal reflection; also, challenging the taken-for-granted, the established beliefs, and the widespread assumptions of a society. 

    On the other side, to grab the students' attention at the very beginning of a lesson is very helpful. I have a teacher that always does that, and it is very intriguing. As students, we do want to keep listening to what he is saying. This is where the Ten Minute Rule enters, where to reboot the students' attention every 10 minutes by inserting something interesting, exciting, or engaging into the lesson. 

    I was impressed by the quote: "The acquisition of knowledge is profoundly impacted by the emotional environment in which it takes place". I have experienced how it feels to be unsure in a classroom, where no one wants to ask something because of fear of being mocked. We should be around optimism, trust, caring, intentionality, and more important, respect. 

    In the article, Ivers gives ideas for an idequate lesson planning and instructor competence: 

1. Positive teacher-student relationship
2. A good “delivery”
3. Edifies rather than damages a student’s self-concept
4. Clarity (through the use of many examples and stories)
5. Encourages deep and critical thinking
6. Variety instead of monotony (do not forget the Ten-Minute Rule)
7. Grading and workload is generally perceived to befair
8. Enthusiasm and zest for the topic
9. Meaningful to real world problems
10. Potentially transforms one’s world view from one of uncritical acceptance of cultural dictates to one of deep, reflective, and compassionate thinking.

    I have learned many things that would help me in my future TESOL classes. I know it is going to be difficult to manage, but as we are in this great journey, I know that empathy and love is the key to a good classroom. 

    So, how are you going to implement these ideas into your own classroom?