On September 25, an English teacher from Spring Lake High School gave a presentation to my Teaching with Technology class at the University of Michigan. His name was David Thuene.
As he spoke, his passion for education became evident, and the stories and lessons he shared with our class have impacted my development as a teacher.
Below are some wisdom-stuffed quotes from his presentation.
I bet you won't find a-one that you cannot apply to your teaching or to yourself as a learner.
I double-dog dare you.
1. "Teaching is so fun. I get to be the inspiration, not the information."
2. "If [students] don't care about a topic, it seems to encourage plagiarism."
3. "Art is never finished, only abandoned. If we're going to fail, which is OK, let's fail forwards."
4. "If teaching really is the greatest form of learning, than have your students do it."
5. "I have to think in non-Googleable terms."
6. "Only engagement can produce mastery."
7. From Penny Kittle: "Teaching is about honor and goodness and mercy."
8. From Kelly Gallagher: "Confusion is the place where learning occurs."
...I bet I won.
-Jesse
ReplyDeleteFirst, I really appreciate that you double dog dared us, and you are right, you won! I agree, David Theune is a very inspirational speaker, and left us with a lot of insight into what teaching is really all about. My favorite quote is the first one. I think this is something that teachers forget a lot of times, and I include myself in this. Sometimes I forget that our job is not simply to give students information, but to inspire students to want to learn. If I am remembering correctly, this involves letting go of some control in the classroom. We have to give students more room to explore and follow their educational whims. Not only will this allow students more flexibility to research topics they are interested in, but they will learn more because of this.
Thank you for putting together this great list!
Jesse,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the collection of quotes! I think these quotes summarize the spirit of the presentation really well. I too was inspired by David's passion for teaching. I especially appreciate his stories of experimenting with new things, and reassuring us that things don't always go well and that it's ok. It was great to see an educator let go of the classroom, and be willing to explore along side his students with new technologies.
Jesse! I love this post! I wrote a post about David Theune as well as I found his words to resonate with my own teaching philosophy. So, how do we take this and apply it to TCEC? I think we have learned #2 and #6 to be true from our students. But what about #3 and #8 - how do we get them to believe these bits of wisdom? I would say that all of our students have such devastatingly negative experiences with "failure," how do we teach them that it is okay to fail (forwards)? The resistance many of them have to take risks for fear of failure is fair and legitimate. I am thinking that to change this mindset would really require a safe and positive school climate that lets students know it is okay to be confused and to fail, as it is all part of the learning process. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteJesse, I really liked this post, mostly for the way in which it focused not on a technology topic per se, but rather on the person behind one of our tech classes. I think that is important. When all is said and done, I firmly believe technology to be nothing more than a tool (or perhaps more accurately, a collection of tools) which should have, at their heart, a deep consideration and respect for the people they are supposed to serve. I think if nothing else, Mr. Theune brought that moment of human connection into the discussion, and I want to thank you for highlighting that here.
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