Comments on: More on Teaching as a Subversive Activity

By: Doug Belshaw

Doug Belshaw — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:11:00 +0000

Indeed – but how would one prove ‘having had a loving relationship’?!

By: Brett McKersey

Brett McKersey — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:19:00 +0000

I’ve just been reading this too. Scarily still very relevant. However I think that #14 is very important!

By: Rochelle Troyano

Rochelle Troyano — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 15:16:00 +0000

Not to mention that in the sciences (where I teach at a community college level), textbooks are out of date 12.5 seconds after they’re published! I’m the only faculty at my college that does NOT use textbooks!

By: Rochelle Troyano

Rochelle Troyano — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 09:16:27 +0000

Not to mention that in the sciences (where I teach at a community college level), textbooks are out of date 12.5 seconds after they're published! I'm the only faculty at my college that does NOT use textbooks!

By: Doug Belshaw

Doug Belshaw — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:13:15 +0000

As you say, I'd love to have the opportunity to teach for, say, a term in a primary school. I would learn so much!

By: Doug Belshaw

Doug Belshaw — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:12:05 +0000

I think that *everyone* assumes information exists independent of the learner. I do think that the prominent view in education is that you can have 'repositories' of knowledge. In reality, knowledge is actually socially *constructed* rather than syphoned off into the brains of learners.I think we're actually in agreement. :-)

By: Doug Belshaw

Doug Belshaw — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:13:00 +0000

As you say, I’d love to have the opportunity to teach for, say, a term in a primary school. I would learn so much! :-D

By: Doug Belshaw

Doug Belshaw — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:12:00 +0000

I think that *everyone* assumes information exists independent of the learner. I do think that the prominent view in education is that you can have ‘repositories’ of knowledge. In reality, knowledge is actually socially *constructed* rather than syphoned off into the brains of learners.

I think we’re actually in agreement. :-)

By: tgidinski

tgidinski — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 18:56:53 +0000

I'll speak briefly to point #3: Transfer all primary school teachers to secondary schools and vice-versa.I have taught upper intermediate (in our district, this is Grades 5, 6, and 7, or ages 10 to 13) for my entire career. If left on my own with a group of five- or six-year-olds, they tend to start crying, but I do enjoy the half-hour drop-in sessions when I take my classes down to the primary wing for buddies once a week. In the first year of my career I was offered a summer job that I hadn't even applied for to teach English 11. Although I first refused the job out of fear, I ended up taking it, and have taught secondary in the summers ever since. This has helped my teaching in both the elementary school and in the secondary school, as it gives me a deeper insight in the differences between the developmental stages of students, and a perspective on where my current elementary students are expected to go in their learning, and where my summer secondary students have come from. It allows me to see the bigger picture, to use an overworked cliche, and explore teaching methods and strategies in both settings that traditionally come from the other setting.

By: tgidinski

tgidinski — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:56:00 +0000

I’ll speak briefly to point #3: Transfer all primary school teachers to secondary schools and vice-versa.

I have taught upper intermediate (in our district, this is Grades 5, 6, and 7, or ages 10 to 13) for my entire career. If left on my own with a group of five- or six-year-olds, they tend to start crying, but I do enjoy the half-hour drop-in sessions when I take my classes down to the primary wing for buddies once a week.

In the first year of my career I was offered a summer job that I hadn’t even applied for to teach English 11. Although I first refused the job out of fear, I ended up taking it, and have taught secondary in the summers ever since. This has helped my teaching in both the elementary school and in the secondary school, as it gives me a deeper insight in the differences between the developmental stages of students, and a perspective on where my current elementary students are expected to go in their learning, and where my summer secondary students have come from. It allows me to see the bigger picture, to use an overworked cliche, and explore teaching methods and strategies in both settings that traditionally come from the other setting.