“There is no improvisation without practice” Jorge Drexler
Flexibility, experience, and creativity, may allow teachers to understand day by day, class by class the way students behave or react. People may change the way they behave, the way they think or they way they see things from one class to the other. This mean that what worked perfectly today, may not work in the same way tomorrow, or the explanation we give today may not be accurate for students of the same level but from a different class. The reason for this unfortunate situation is not students only (as you may be thinking), teachers also change. In the end, we are all people.
Teachers ought to be flexible to adapt to different students states. This means that the strategies prepared and thought from the beginning might be completely modified or adapted at the very moment of getting into to classroom - The goal remains in teachers mind. The job has to be done and the lesson has to be understood by at least most of students, no matter what! - Observation is the first step in the scientific method, not chosen randomly, but is obviously the first stage in analyzing a situation. Teachers’ creativity has been built by experience among other reasons, and it would be very helpful at that moment of despair, when at first sight, students’ class is a complete chaos – But it has to be remembered that the goal is above everything.
The teachers are not academically prepared to solve those kinds of issues (which unfortunately seem to be more common than we would like to) but the experience may give a teacher the tools for it -As the Uruguayan musician Jorge Drexler says: “there is no improvisation without practice”.
Finally, flexibility, experience and creativity would allow teachers to adapt to new and unexpected situations. But now new questions emerge into my mind: Do teachers have one goal in education only? And if that is so, what is more important. Teaching or educating?
I totally agree with you about teachers' creativity and that is the main point which we are able to be flexible, adaptable in any kinds of situations. I think that all of us have something so very special to develop our profession and to learn with our students at the same time.
ResponderEliminarYou gave good examples of what teachers have to consider while always keeping the ¨big idea¨ in mind. It´s very realistic and sometimes not always as easy as it seems.
ResponderEliminarKeeping teachers' creativity flexible...I kinda agree with you that there's no improvisation without practice...However I feel that's no excuse for getting out of college not prepared as we should.
ResponderEliminarSometimes, using Creativity in the classroom requires a lot of effort, it must be put into practice and we should encourage sts to develop it.
ResponderEliminarTo my mind the teaching career makes us be all the time improving our ideas and pedagogical skills that go straight to help our learners'understanding.
ResponderEliminarI agree with that, but that's only in the case of the ones who love what they do. I've seen many teachers who are just not interesting in being creative or improving their practices.
ResponderEliminarIt is not an easy task to use our creativity, flexibility and experience. Of course we should do it all the time. However, there are things out of our own hands and it gets harder to carry out a good class.
ResponderEliminarWe as teachers need to be creative in order to motivate our students, we also need to be flexible in order to be able to teach every single student we have, paying attention to their particular learning styles, interests, pace, motivation, etc. When I think about experience, I feel that I need more time, I've learned a lot while teaching, of course at the University they don't teach you how to be a good teacher and how to do the best lessons, so of course I think that experience is essential, and the only way of improving is to have experienced different realities, points of view, teaching scenarios and contexts.
ResponderEliminarWhen can we get creativity?
ResponderEliminarCertainly teachers should have some sort of "Training Creativity" plan.
If you want to be a teacher, you don't only need to be patiente or to have clarity when you explain. You need to be creative: to use creativity at the moment you teach (explaining units), do some tasks and catch your students attention....but doing this it is not very easy...you suppose to do it, but sometimes you don't have enough time to create new thing, or you don't have the necessary tools for doing so. .
ResponderEliminarI'd love to be that flexible, but that implies a lot of extra work. I mean, planning almost day by day according to students reaction... I hardly do what my boss wants me to do.
ResponderEliminarI agree with you,we need to be creative,but when you try and try and you have only a big wall in front of you, you want to be flexible but your boss tells you all you have to do is difficult.
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