3th Entry

1.    In what ways have you experienced “suffering” as a student teacher?

Has your suffering had any redemptive quality to it; that is, has it made you heart larger?

What would help you deepen the redemptive quality of the suffering your experience in your work?

        I have experienced some sufferings which make me feel down in the dumps. For example I sometimes feel disappointed not only because the lack of time but also because the lack of knowledge. Besides, If you feel that there is a lack of knowledge, you might feel that you are not in the right academic  way; however, I need to pull out all the stops and to break my back to continue with this major because this is the major that I like the most. I think every single thing we do has not only difficulties, but also rewards. At the beginning of this chapter I can see something that catches my attention: (page 62) ''I may be mistaken for someone who excuses poor technique, arguing teachers just to ''be themselves''; who believes there are no standards for truth, just ''whatever you think it is''; who doesn't care about the content of your thoughts, just as long as you ''share what you feel.'' 
 That's why I don't feel comfortable when I think I have that lack of knowledge, besides I have had some teachers who have lost that passion for teaching because their lack of knowledge.

I know that this suffering will make me push myself to the limit.

 

2.    Name some of your key gifts or strengths as a teacher. Now name a struggle or difficulty you commonly have in teaching.  How do you understand the relation between your profile of giftedness and the kind of trouble you typically get into in the classroom?

When I get excited about the topic, I like to help students understand it and the students also feel animated, motivated and interested in the class. I truly believe that we as teachers must demonstrate that we like to teach, even when we feel depressed about anything. I think my own energy to teach is one of my strengths. However, I sometimes feel disappointed because students learn in a slow way, but I guess I have to be patient. I really think that we as teachers must know every student and listen to them carefully in order to help everyone. As it says in page 69: ‘’An aptitude for asking good questions and listening carefully to my students’ responses – not only to what they say but also to what they leave unsaid.’’

3.    Describe a moment in teaching when things went so well you knew you were “born to teach” and compare it to a moment in which things went so poorly you wished you had never been born! Name the gifts that made this good moment possible—not the techniques you used or the moves you made, but your qualities.

I remember an experience in which the class was really boring, and then I stopped giving the class. Students were in a black mood, then I wrote many different questions on the board and started asking questions everyone, and all of a sudden everyone got ants in his pants. I think I took the bull by the horns and the class became interesting again. What Palmer says is true: becoming aware of our gifts can help us teach more consistently from our identity and integrity. (Page 69)

4.   Palmer discusses six paradoxes of pedagogical design (pp.73-83). Choose one to focus on.  Share examples of teaching environments you have experienced where this paradox is honored.  Have you ever been in a classroom where only half of the paradox was honored while the other half was ignored? Describe what that classroom was like.

No 4: The space should not honor the ‘’little’’ stories of the individual and the ‘’big’’ stories of the disciplines and tradition.

I remember a teacher who always was telling us stories about his life, but he never taught us about the lesson. In this paradox () is necessary to perform a balance between the topic of the lesson and the individual stories in order to maintain the flow of the lesson. We as students could feel good; nevertheless, we didn’t learn so much in that year.

5.   What questions are you living at this stage of your life—from “How can I get up in the morning? To “How can I become a good teacher? Are the questions you are now living the ones you want to live? If not, what questions would you like to be living? How might you hold these questions at the center of your attention?

When I get up everyday I ask myself:  Will it be worth it? 
Then I remember the things I learn

everyday; and as I see it, it will be worth it. 


I also ask myself: how can I become a teacher? And the answer is to practice all the time. As far as I am concerned, I agree with Palmer: ‘’…the point is to live everything. Live the contradictions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the paradox.’’  (Page 86)