#KELTchat Slowburn: Reflecting on the Teacher Behind the Practice

This #KELTchat Slowburn™ is roughly based around Tom Farrell’s workshop on November 30th in Seoul. Of course, attending the talk is not a pre-requisite for participating in the chat, which is aimed at being an exploration.

The chat will be on December 2nd, 2014 from 10 am to 10 pm, Korea time.
All are welcome and here is a link for times around the world. 

Here are some questions to consider and maybe to guide the chat:

• Farrell says, “Good teaching requires more than application of methods; it requires self-knowledge.” What does self-knowledge mean to you in this case?
• How can we go about acquiring this knowledge?
• How can knowing about ourselves impact our teaching?
• How can we discover our tacit beliefs about teaching and learning?
• Have you ever discovered your hidden beliefs? How did it happen? What did it mean for your teaching and development?
• What does it really mean to know yourself as a teacher?
• Where do your teaching beliefs and philosophy come from?
• Your own related questions.

Some sentence stems (“narrative frames”) that might help us explore our thoughts on teaching are:

1. To me, the word teacher means…
2. I became a teacher because…
3. I believe teaching is a calling because…
4. When I first started to teach I…
5. The place I teach now is…
6. My students are…
7. I enjoy going into school each morning because…
8. I find teaching exciting and challenging because…
9. I do not thinking teaching is a job because…
10. I think teaching is a profession because…
11. The best aspect of my life as a teacher is…
12. The worst aspect of my life as a teacher is..
13. What I really enjoy doing in my classroom is…
14. My students believe in….
    (These frames are all directly from the workshop.)

Which of them was easier for you to answer? Hardest? What made you think? What connections can you draw? What does this tell you about your beliefs about teaching?

We are looking forward to seeing you in the chat and as always please feel free to pop in and out as time permits

 

“Who I am is how I teach.”