Educators have many faces as well, and different lesson plans and styles of teaching are expressed differently from a day to day basis even if we are examining the teaching practice of one individual. There is something about the lecture on Teaching Myths that I find so compelling. It made me uncomfortable and analyzing the three videos was a struggle for me and I completed the other assignments before attempting that one. I left it until the end. Watching each video was like lifting the layers to my own teaching practice; it was incredibly difficult to comment on teaching techniques that I knew were not ideal in some cases but that I could see myself perpetuating at some point in my life. It made the exercise personal.
I cannot speak for the teachers portrayed in the video but I know why I allow myself to perpetuate these myths. It is sometimes just easier to accept the status quo. I think it is worth examining some of the realities of teaching in this day and age that force teachers to accept teaching myths as a type of reality. I am just hypothesizing but a teacher who allows a certain stereotype to perpetuate may be accepting the fast and efficient way of announcing to the world that this is how they wish to be perceived.
Is it not easier for some teachers to walk into a classroom and convey a certain persona in order to shift the power dynamic when they feel that they don’t have time to foster the relationship necessary? Or maybe these teachers are seeing students as limited participants in the classroom environment.
I have observed schools where teaching loads are quite heavy. Teachers are expected to be many things to many people without the proper training. I suspect that the math teacher in the video accepted the stand and deliver mode of teaching because it was also easier to adhere to the role or motions of being a teacher in this way. I remember many times throughout childhood where I would pretend to be a teacher and would stand in front of a room and write on a blackboard. This was a stereotype of being a teacher. An educator is always connected to the blackboard, a whiteboard, and now a smartboard. Teaching is always connected to the act of writing or presenting something on a physical space.
Excellent educators are considered individuals who have the ability to instill passion into their students. A consequence of this success is a type of public recognition for both the student. Internal growth or exploration must be manifested in a form of outward achievement.
I am having difficulties thinking of a compelling teacher film that does not adhere to some stereotype of teaching even if these films propel educators to a position of demi-gods.
Here are some films that enhance the myth of teaching:
1. Dead Poet’s Society.
2. The Freedom Writers.
3. Mr. Holland’s Opus.
I have a fear that accepting popular culture’s notion of teaching myths will make me forget that sometimes the difference that I make as an educator will be far less significant than what is happening in the movies. There are days when I am just excited when a student has taken the time to work on one essay and it may be her only essay submission of the semester.
As an extension to some of R’s examples, I have included some of my own educator myths:
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