That’s a good way to put it. A lot of the teachers I ran into were way burnt out, and the kids were clearly enemy #1 followed by ‘the system.’
One kid (super smart but often super checked out) told me the prior teacher had never even acknowledged him and he regularly just walked out of class early to go hang out at the Safeway across the street
I love that your biggest classroom lesson was discovering that teenagers have a magical ability to make eye contact only when they are asking to leave the room. 😂
This took me back to when I taught business communication in Trinidad to adults (18+). I wasn’t much older than many of my students, which meant I was occasionally standing in front of a classroom thinking wtf am I doing.
But the funny thing is, adults and teenagers are not as different as we like to pretend. Both avoid things that make them uncomfortable, both underestimate themselves, and both need someone to believe in them before they fully believe in themselves.
The morale in the class sure improved with every Kahoot! we played, but most of the class lacked the inherent motivation to learn or achieve (versus passing the exam) that the adults I’ve taught had.
Reminds me of my days as a sub. Not a particularly remunerative career, but if you need to find kids to mow your lawn or play basketball with, you could make it pay.
I got here from reading your article on Paul's page about Michael and the Heathkit. I was on the mainframe by then, so I never thought of computers as that kind of "fun" till the Mac Plus came out. I missed out on a lot by choosing business-oriented computing too early.
And here I thought I was being proactive. Oh well...
CYOA dude is my favorite kid, and was from the moment you described him to me.
And kids need adults who will meet them where they are. Sounds like you did that in spades!
That’s a good way to put it. A lot of the teachers I ran into were way burnt out, and the kids were clearly enemy #1 followed by ‘the system.’
One kid (super smart but often super checked out) told me the prior teacher had never even acknowledged him and he regularly just walked out of class early to go hang out at the Safeway across the street
I love that your biggest classroom lesson was discovering that teenagers have a magical ability to make eye contact only when they are asking to leave the room. 😂
This took me back to when I taught business communication in Trinidad to adults (18+). I wasn’t much older than many of my students, which meant I was occasionally standing in front of a classroom thinking wtf am I doing.
But the funny thing is, adults and teenagers are not as different as we like to pretend. Both avoid things that make them uncomfortable, both underestimate themselves, and both need someone to believe in them before they fully believe in themselves.
Happy Friday Andrew
The morale in the class sure improved with every Kahoot! we played, but most of the class lacked the inherent motivation to learn or achieve (versus passing the exam) that the adults I’ve taught had.
I wonder how much of that is age and how much is the environment we create around learning.
Just fantastic taking that challenge in and seeing it through.
Yay, June 🥳🥳🥳
Reminds me of my days as a sub. Not a particularly remunerative career, but if you need to find kids to mow your lawn or play basketball with, you could make it pay.
I got here from reading your article on Paul's page about Michael and the Heathkit. I was on the mainframe by then, so I never thought of computers as that kind of "fun" till the Mac Plus came out. I missed out on a lot by choosing business-oriented computing too early.
And here I thought I was being proactive. Oh well...