The look of learning.
When the President was giving his Town Hall Meeting in California last Thursday, I was struck by the look on the faces of the group of people sitting behind him on the stage.
The gentle smiles, the occasional nod of approval and the various body languages are some of the things we teachers witness while teaching. That’s when we know we are ‘struttin’’ our stuff’. That is when we know we have a good lesson and learning is taking place. It is those three elements, and perhaps a few more, that sends out an aura to you as the teacher. It is an energy your audience sends to you. You can feel it! There is no mistaking the energy emitting from your audience. When those rock stars yell from the stage, “I feel you!” they know what they are saying and so does their audience. Sometimes those good vibes come in massive waves and I am mindful of the concerts of Michael Jackson as one instance of what I am talking about. The audience i.e, responding to both the words THEY CAN HEAR AND UNDERSTAND and the music. The same things happened with the Beatless; the audience responding to both clearly articulated words and music.
I use to ask my students “Where is the joy of the song if you can not understand the words?” I would further employ them not to feel bad if all their friends are raving about a song in which they themselves can not understand what the singer is saying. I usually get one of those “gentle smiles” from some of the students when I would say that. They would send me a flash energy smile of “I understand, Mr. BB.” The flash smile being an inaudible applause. A smile has energy, no matter how gentle and how brief. I saw this too on the faces of the people sitting on the stage at the President‘s town hall meeting in California.
In my opinion, the novice teacher gets the vibes of nervousness from his audience. He is nervous and so is his audience. The more skills the novice develops and the more command he has over his subject matter, that vibe from his audience gradually disappears and you get the look of the audience sitting behind the President in California last Thursday evening.
Pres. Obama is getting better and better in teaching his audience. He has now entered the stage wherein he is breaking down the meaning of words he feels will prevent his audience from a total understanding of an issue. That’s a conscious skill to develop. When you are using a word that took you awhile to understand, why assume your audience already knows it? One of the first tenets of teaching is to go from the known to the unknown.
If appropriate foundations are not prepared, you run the risk, the “I promise you risk” of losing your audience. How can your audience be with you if you are assuming they know the definition of each new word coming minute by minute into the lexicon with each new major political issue? That is not the way a teacher thinks. They do not make those arrogant assumptions and most definitely not a position to take when talking to a group of mixed audience. Surely, making those assumptions when speaking to a specific group of people can be justified but not the general public.
President Obama is getting better in his teaching skills when addressing the general public as he should. He is an intelligent, open minded person always willing to learn new things himself. A good teacher welcomes a learning experience as well as teaching new experiences. The is one of the many joys of teaching; simultaneously teaching and learning. I miss it, dammit!
At the town hall meeting last Thursday, I was pleased Pres. Obama learned how to call on people in the audience. It takes one time, one time only, mind you, when a student yells out in your class, “You always call on girls” or “You never call on me!” for you to learn that lesson and woe be unto you if it comes out in the counselor’s office with the student registering his dismay with your class.
Although the accusation may or may not be true, it is a sobering experience to know there are people making all sorts of excuses not to learn. A true phenomenon. Of course there are other interpretations of why the student is making those accusations but sitting there in the counselor’s office, in your embarrassment you are angry. With whom you are angry are questions that are a part of the foundations that makes a good teacher; no mis-placed anger.
Finally, there is the home-work phase of teaching. During the primaries, the President gave us the assignment of helping him carrying out his program. He told us it would not be easy. He told us we could become public servants, for example, by joining the Peace Corp and there will be more. He has to be very pleased how we responded to the AIG bail out debacle. That’s a teacher’s reward; the pleasures of a job well done and not the money. I miss it, dammit!
Fighting for the dignity of my Ancestors,
God bless Bill Gates, WPFW, C-Span and the spirits of the unborn for the help,
BB
P.S. I don’t feel like ‘writing’ which includes editing. Just want to record a stream of consciousness. It’s almost 3:00 AM. Feels good. Writing can be hard at times. I envy writers who have editors. (Smile)
Related reading:
Taking The Pulse Of The American People
by DemFromCT
Sat Mar 21, 2009 at 09:46:03 AM PDT
http://demfromct.dailykos.com/
The gentle smiles, the occasional nod of approval and the various body languages are some of the things we teachers witness while teaching. That’s when we know we are ‘struttin’’ our stuff’. That is when we know we have a good lesson and learning is taking place. It is those three elements, and perhaps a few more, that sends out an aura to you as the teacher. It is an energy your audience sends to you. You can feel it! There is no mistaking the energy emitting from your audience. When those rock stars yell from the stage, “I feel you!” they know what they are saying and so does their audience. Sometimes those good vibes come in massive waves and I am mindful of the concerts of Michael Jackson as one instance of what I am talking about. The audience i.e, responding to both the words THEY CAN HEAR AND UNDERSTAND and the music. The same things happened with the Beatless; the audience responding to both clearly articulated words and music.
I use to ask my students “Where is the joy of the song if you can not understand the words?” I would further employ them not to feel bad if all their friends are raving about a song in which they themselves can not understand what the singer is saying. I usually get one of those “gentle smiles” from some of the students when I would say that. They would send me a flash energy smile of “I understand, Mr. BB.” The flash smile being an inaudible applause. A smile has energy, no matter how gentle and how brief. I saw this too on the faces of the people sitting on the stage at the President‘s town hall meeting in California.
In my opinion, the novice teacher gets the vibes of nervousness from his audience. He is nervous and so is his audience. The more skills the novice develops and the more command he has over his subject matter, that vibe from his audience gradually disappears and you get the look of the audience sitting behind the President in California last Thursday evening.
Pres. Obama is getting better and better in teaching his audience. He has now entered the stage wherein he is breaking down the meaning of words he feels will prevent his audience from a total understanding of an issue. That’s a conscious skill to develop. When you are using a word that took you awhile to understand, why assume your audience already knows it? One of the first tenets of teaching is to go from the known to the unknown.
If appropriate foundations are not prepared, you run the risk, the “I promise you risk” of losing your audience. How can your audience be with you if you are assuming they know the definition of each new word coming minute by minute into the lexicon with each new major political issue? That is not the way a teacher thinks. They do not make those arrogant assumptions and most definitely not a position to take when talking to a group of mixed audience. Surely, making those assumptions when speaking to a specific group of people can be justified but not the general public.
President Obama is getting better in his teaching skills when addressing the general public as he should. He is an intelligent, open minded person always willing to learn new things himself. A good teacher welcomes a learning experience as well as teaching new experiences. The is one of the many joys of teaching; simultaneously teaching and learning. I miss it, dammit!
At the town hall meeting last Thursday, I was pleased Pres. Obama learned how to call on people in the audience. It takes one time, one time only, mind you, when a student yells out in your class, “You always call on girls” or “You never call on me!” for you to learn that lesson and woe be unto you if it comes out in the counselor’s office with the student registering his dismay with your class.
Although the accusation may or may not be true, it is a sobering experience to know there are people making all sorts of excuses not to learn. A true phenomenon. Of course there are other interpretations of why the student is making those accusations but sitting there in the counselor’s office, in your embarrassment you are angry. With whom you are angry are questions that are a part of the foundations that makes a good teacher; no mis-placed anger.
Finally, there is the home-work phase of teaching. During the primaries, the President gave us the assignment of helping him carrying out his program. He told us it would not be easy. He told us we could become public servants, for example, by joining the Peace Corp and there will be more. He has to be very pleased how we responded to the AIG bail out debacle. That’s a teacher’s reward; the pleasures of a job well done and not the money. I miss it, dammit!
Fighting for the dignity of my Ancestors,
God bless Bill Gates, WPFW, C-Span and the spirits of the unborn for the help,
BB
P.S. I don’t feel like ‘writing’ which includes editing. Just want to record a stream of consciousness. It’s almost 3:00 AM. Feels good. Writing can be hard at times. I envy writers who have editors. (Smile)
Related reading:
Taking The Pulse Of The American People
by DemFromCT
Sat Mar 21, 2009 at 09:46:03 AM PDT
http://demfromct.dailykos.com/
posted by BB at 2:45 AM
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