We as teacher's have our next generation leaders, artists, musicians, athletes, and scientists passing through our classrooms. All of which have talents waiting to be discovered. It's one thing for someone to discover their own talents, but it takes a great teacher to help draw out those talents.
Growing up in school, I definitely had teachers who were more engaged than others. I remember my math teacher who inspired me to do more than I felt I was capable of. I started high school as a freshman in remedial math, because of the choices I made during middle school. When I was a junior, I walked into the classroom of Mr. Stepp. He was my algebra 2 teacher. I knew that the trajectory I was headed, I would only make it to pre-calculus before leaving high school. He saw the potential in me, and even though I wasn't going to move up into higher math classes, he helped me discover my love for math, and I made it into honors algebra 2 that year, and then honors pre-calculus.
One of the things that helped encourage me, was someone believing in me even when I didn't believe in myself. As a future teacher myself, I want to realize the potential in all students and help to draw the confidence and talents out to help discover those talents in our students.
Sir Ken Robinson's TEDx Talk can be found here: https://youtu.be/FLbXrNGVXfE
Sir Ken is a favorite of mine. Which is why we watch more of his videos in this course! In this talk, I was particularly intrigued by his story about the Dalai Lama. Who'd have thought "I don't know" could be so powerful, right?!? Normally, when we hear people say that, we think they are lazy or unwilling to even try to answer. But here is the Dalai Lama - who certainly can't be considered lazy or unmotivated - using that same phrase. The difference? He tried. He thought it through and determined that he didn't have the answer. There's nothing lazy about that. Humbling perhaps, but not lazy. That's the effort I want to encourage from students. To think things through, and when the answer isn't there, to seek it out.
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