A positive learning environment

[Alejandro Tejada]

At 12:39 PM 7/30/05

Mark Greenberg wrote:
Ah, the things they didn't teach in college education
courses:
Maintain a positive learning environment when...
• your new classroom is a converted storage area,
• the bookstore won't issue you textbooks because your
room is not on the list of classrooms (see above),
• you're asked to disregard the fire alarms in the
middle of student presentations,
• there's black mold growing in the ceiling tiles,
• Johnny's wasted and Jackie's pregnant (due the week
before finals),
• the state test is more important than getting kids
to think for themselves,
• the teachable moment is exploring why the word
graffitied on your door is represents a shift in the
historical gender reference of the word "bitch,"
• they bring the network server down for scheduled
maintenance during fifth period,
• the principal is eating a tuna sandwich during your
evaluation (in the classroom with kids just before
lunch),
• subject-verb agreement is nowhere near as
interesting as the fight before class,
• mom says your attendance records are wrong,
• you have to pee, but lunch is two more hours away,
• three years after the textbook purchase, the student
books still creak when opened,
• the New York Times runs an article about your
innovative teaching, but the local administration
ignores the article,
• and admin has banned all video tapes from the
classroom because some lazy teacher was showing
"Little Mermaid."
Somehow I learned to keep smiling, teaching, and
enjoying the kids anyway.  But a course in how to do
that would be more valuable than all those classes on
the theories of Skinner and Maslow.
-- 

Hi Mark,

The Classroom is the teacher's opportunity to recreate
a whole new world for their students.
This New World should be (ideally) a reflect of the
teacher's own world.

It's difficult for a teacher to recreate a learning
environment that will allow our students to learn our
lessons and reflect themselves.

There are so many limitations and caveats, but in the
end, we keep going because that's our way to make the
difference in many lives... a difference that
could last for years to come!   :-)

al




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