Teaching Philosophy

I've been thinking about all the different teachers I have had in the course of my lifetime, both conventional and unconventional. Scholastically I have somewhere around 100, which sounds absurd but is absolutely true. Then when you add in all of the different teachers in church settings, my parents, and even private lessons in different fields of interest. The list is just about endless. Yet there are only a few teachers that I can remember for their teaching. I have mentioned Mr. Moyle... That man is a miracle, not in such a great way. I remember him for being an extremely bad teacher. Then there are teachers like Mrs. Lambert, Mrs. Potter, and Professor Spencer Blake. There are three teachers that changed the whole game of learning for me. They made it interesting, fun, and I held a level of respect for them that made me want to remember what they were telling me. They were some pretty great teachers and something that they all did in their class was make sure that the students participated. We were expected to participate and we knew that the teacher wanted to hear from us. They were encouraging and didn't take things too seriously. My personal philosophy is that there needs to be in class discussion and participation. How else can a teacher tell whether or not learning is going on. It's like a doctor who hasn't asked a patient what the problem is before he starts treating him. In order to help people learn there needs to be communication to find out where they're at and where they're struggling.

Those teachers that I listed were also very organized in their teaching. When I say that I don't mean that they were Nazi's at sticking to their lesson plan, but they planned so well that they could lead the discussion in such a way that we learned what we needed to in the given time frame, and they used students answers to questions to lead into different topics of study. They were all experts in what they taught whether or not it was 3rd grade math, 7th grade science, or college Sociology. They all knew what they were talking about and in the case they didn't they all came back to class the next meeting having read and learned about it so they would be more prepared to help the class. Being able to deviate from course for a moment and find a way to return seamlessly is something that can only happen when the teacher is both prepared and organized.

One of the greatest things I learned while I was on my mission was the power of understanding and respect. I served in the third world country of Mozambique where the average individual had a 6th grade level of learning and a lot of life experience. Though they were not the most articulate bunch, they understood life and what it was all about. Something that I needed to learn was that even though their speech and their way of life was sometimes juvenile, these people had experience and they were not dumb. When I began to understand this I started to respect those I taught a whole lot more, and I never talked down to them. Once I started doing this it was interesting to see the effect it had on everything. People were more receptive to our message and they liked us a heck of a lot more. Thank goodness this was something I learned early on, because I saw how it affected the areas of those missionaries that thought they were better than those they taught. It's funny how far something as simple as kindness can go.

I just mentioned that I served my mission in Mozambique where the average level of formal education was 6th grade. Sometimes teaching was a little bit of a struggle because the people were not super familiar with a lot of scriptural terms, and the Book of Mormon is a rather difficult read if you're not used to that kind of reading or writing. Something I got really good at while I was on my mission was teaching for understanding which I define as this: Simply teaching the What, Why, and How of a certain doctrine, principle, or in this case, subject. What is it? Why is it important? How can we apply it in life? It works like a charm, and good explanations are priceless. You have to teach at the level of the learner, which doesn't mean treat them like a child, but create the best environment for them to learn.

All in all teaching is extremely difficult, and I don't consider myself a great teacher by any means, but I do feel like I've had the chance to observe many teachers in my life and gain a better understanding of how it is done most effectively. There are several things that I have left out as well that are wonderful things to do as a teacher, but for the sake of time I won't go into those. I also feel like there is a lot to learn still about teaching and how to convey your message in the very most effective way possible. (One last thing is to ask insightful rather than "no duh" questions. I was reminded of that as Mack, Sammi, and myself planned out our lesson for last Thursday).