Ayers+Notes

Chapter 1
 * Teaching is much more alive than directly delivering curriculum. More joy, pain, joy, intelligence, conflict, etc...
 * Positive memories of teachers are the ones who touched your heart: understood and cared about you as a person, passion was effective
 * Teaching is often women's work, and deskilled into something mechanical, held in low esteem, covered with government bureaucracy
 * challenge to reach out to each individual student
 * people are called into teaching to share a passion with the world, or carry some hope of making the world a better place
 * our ideal selves as teachers may be different from the obstacles we face in the real world
 * experience develops over time, impossible to be an experienced teacher without first being a new teacher

Myths about teaching
 * 1) "Good classroom management is the first step to becoming a good teacher," wrongly assumes that managing the class precedes teaching. Working well with a big group comes with skill and experience. Need for assessing group dynamic and individuals
 * 2) "Teachers learn to teach in colleges of education" teachers will tell you they learn on the job
 * 3) "Teachers make learning fun" fun should be watched, can be distracting. Learning should be engaging
 * 4) "Teachers always know the material" sometimes teachers learn alongside their students
 * 5) "Teachers begin with given curriculum, and enhance it" teachers begin with high expectations for learners
 * 6) "Teachers are good performers" not always
 * 7) "Teachers treat all students alike"
 * 8) "Students today are different from ever before"
 * 9) "Good teaching can be measured by how well students do on tests"
 * 10) "A good teacher knows what is going on in the classroom"

Teaching faces the challenge of environmental factors--culture, etc... Teaching is deciding what knowledge and experiences are most worthwhile. When to focus on what they consider necessary skills? When do they allow students to initiate? When do they nurture, when do they let go? How do they know they are doing the right thing? What do you care about? What do you value? How do you conduct yourself in the classroom?