Reflections on Teaching

Here's my first post in my new blog, The Dise.  I am not sure what happened to my old one, but perhaps there's a lesson in it - that this is what happens when you look away from technology!  I am taking this as an opportunity because I can start fresh, which should always be considered a treasure, not a terror.

As the first of hopefully many posts on this subject, I would like to reflect on teaching.  To keep you in the loop, I have taken this last year (and next year) off from teaching in order to pursue a second degree.  I had taught 5-12th grade band at a small school district for 6 years and decided that I wanted to teach in the elementary classroom instead.  So over the course of these 4 semesters and this coming summer, I will have the requisite courses to teach in the elementary classroom (see my bio for a more detailed account)!

This morning before church, I was doing some lip buzzing, flexibility exercises, and otherwise warming up along with our French horn player, who is a recently retired choir director.  We both talked about missing the experience of being in the classroom, and how I was looking forward to getting back in!  We also discussed how we did not miss grading.  Grading is possibly the worst thing about teaching.  It is assigning labels, which is problematic enough, but is truly one of the toughest parts of teaching!  To be objective, and authentic; to capture the position of a complex, nuanced, continually shifting situation: a student's achievement; is like identifying the position of an electron (Chem4Kids discusses it, so does Princeton); is like identifying photons as a wave or particle (Scientific American lays it all out).  In other words, impossible.  Good luck!

But we love labels and status and hierarchy and checklists.  (Actually, I do love checklists, but that may be something therapy can address...)

So the grading will continue.  I do think we're on the right track with the way many elementary schools are changing their grading scales / reports in an attempt to more accurately, and helpfully indicate how children are doing in a variety of areas (like Fairfax County, VA, and Cedar Falls, IA).  We aren't there yet, and I am certainly glad that I will be assigning NO grades as we close the Spring 2013 semester and 2012-2013 school year!

On the other hand, I cannot wait to get into my own classroom again!  To teach is not only a noble calling (that's what they say when a thing is accompanied with low pay), but it is amazing.  Soon.