Unlike my school district, I don't have a lofty mission statement about unrealistic goals that most of my students will never be capable of reaching. In the beginning of the school year, I let my students know that when they leave my class at the end of the year, that I am not concerned with whether they learned anything about history whatsoever. Dates, facts, names...they are honestly all garbage. Unless they want to become a historian, what is the overall purpose in them memorizing useless information. My mission is to take this so-called, "useless information", and to find creative ways for my students to apply it to everyday life. I also want to build upon the skills that my students will need to utilize in order to be successful in life. One day, when they are older and have a job, they will undoubtedly feel as if they are underpaid and deserve a raise. If they just walk into their bosses office and say, "I want a raise", their boss will unequivocally retort back at them with the looming question as to why they deserve one. One of my overarching goals as a teacher then is to teach my students how they can use factual information to support their answers (or reasoning) so that they can explain why certain things are they way they are. To one day, be able to walk into their bosses office and say, "I deserve a raise because....". Other than that, my other goal is to ensure that my students become more cognizant of the world around them so that they may evolve as positive citizens who can contribute something beneficial for others in our society.
2 comments:
It seems you have a very realistic approach towards teaching. I remember feeling the same way as a student thinking how is this information necessary or how can this information be used in life. A teacher needs to provide practical applications to support the information the students are expected to know.
People who graduate from HP have superb writing skill. That is a fact that I hope to one day use in a persuasive debate with my boss in order to get a raise. I think that your mission is realistic and attainable, and that it certainly fills it's purpose. In reality, unless you are prepping your students to be the next Jeopardy! contestant, logic and reason are priceless skills for one to acquire. Without sound reasoning and judgements, or the ability to formulate and support personal opinions, what is the point of living? Everything would be meaningless and unconnected to your experience, and your mind would never grow. Your mission sums up what a teacher is there for: to feed minds.
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