How is the
first day of school?
This would be another subject worth
the attention. What are the differences when one says leading and managing?
What does instruction mean? Who or what are to be instructed?
One would absolutely agree that a
teacher’s job is to ensure students’ learning—that is, all students will speak,
think, understand, and act in new ways. Teachers begin with the learning and
well-being of students in mind and design outward, employing a variety of
methods that make a sustained cognitive demand on learners to ensure learning.
Teachers continuously make adjustments until students have mastered the
understanding or skill. In successful classroom, students are active in reconfiguring
their own brains. That’s why there is no profession or calling more important
than teaching. It is both a title and job description that can be worn with
pride, even in the midst of a great deal of public criticism of schools and
teachers. Therefore, in order to offer students the
kinds of experiences that reformers want them to have, teachers need to immerse
themselves in similar experiences.
In addition, teachers are challenged
to possess an essential skill in conducting conversations and that is the
ability to formulate simple declarative sentences that offer an observation,
declare a value, state an assumption, explain an idea, or make a request and to
be willing to learn and be changed by the views of others. Many teachers as leaders,
however, default in such situations to asking questions rather stating their
points of view. One can see that teachers as leaders in a class if to produce a
well-phrased and appropriately-timed question can pique interest, focus
attention, establish an extended line of inquiry, and deepen understanding,
questions can also be veiled forms of advice giving (“Have you ever thought of
. . .?”) or indirect expressions of points of view. Sometimes questions raised
by the teachers as leaders are the best way to open a difficult conversation,
particularly when the questions are open and honest. In addition, teachers as leaders
may choose to ask questions so as not to unduly influence the direction of a
conversation by offering their views prematurely.
Then, the fundamental purpose of
professional learning is to ensure that all students in all schools experience
quality learning every day and are surrounded by supportive relationships. The
achievement of certain goal, requires that teachers and leaders themselves
experience quality learning and supportive relationships as part of their daily
work. Such learning affects educators’ beliefs (world views, mental models,
conceptual frames), the depth of their understanding about important issues and
subjects, their habits of mind and behavior, and the type and amount of social
support they receive in their daily work.
Now
this reflection may end through this statement by Jim Knight:
A
teacher with a fixed mindset sees his students as pretty much already where
they will be. If every child’s qualities are carved in stone, then every
child’s potential is limited or fixed. However, a teacher with a growth
mindset sees his students as coming to class with enormous potential. Every
student holds within him or her an amazing potential waiting to be unlocked.
And to this kind of teacher, one of the great joys of teaching is to find the
key to unlock that potential.
Fiona Mary M. Cabrillos June 30, 2012
PhD – EDMAN Dr. Olga C. Alonsabe
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