Wobble. No, I'm not talking about the dance that requires you to shake your bum while simultaneously doing some sort of dance-worthy gesture with your arms. I'm talking about wobbling in your thinking; the area in your thinking where you don't quite stand still because you're not sure if that's your intellectual wish.
As SI-ers we have wobbled so much on a vast array of issues. At times, I fought the wobbling for fear of where it may lead me. Now, as we approach the end of Summer Institute I am so grateful for the wobbling. The wobbling has lead me to step back from my teaching practices to question why I teach the way I do and whether or not my methods are my methods because they are familiar to me and easy to execute or are they my methods because they are best for my students.
At times I took intellectual thoughts that challenged my own to heart, thinking well, I can't receive that, it doesn't mesh with my teaching methods and philosophy. I got uncomfortable. Yet, in further thinking, I needed to get uncomfortable. I needed to be challenged. From that challenge came a rethinking and repurposing of my teaching convictions. I either was more firm in my stance of philosophy and methods or it caused me to question where I stood, wobble, and reposition myself in what is best for the students.
So, thank you to those who helped me wobble. I'm a better teacher because of your influence.
I love that you are wobbling. Sometimes it's almost like a cleansing to get fresh ideas and mull them.
ReplyDeleteI love this post! You are so honest about what you are thinking now and even before. I especially liked when you wrote, "The wobbling has led me to step back from my teaching practices to question why I teach the way I do and whether or not my methods are my methods because they are familiar to me and easy to execute or are they my methods because they are best for my students." I think that we all are guilty of this (or at least I know I am!) sort of perspective. I know especially when we first start teaching, it's pretty much all about survival and you do what you know or what others tell you. But what's so great about teaching is that we are given a fresh start every year to do something entirely different and try something new. Not very many people get to do that in their careers and I think that we forget sometimes how cool it is that we all get a "re-do" button and if we try something new that doesn't work out, we live, we learn, and we try something else.
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