Thinking About Teaching

Today I had the pleasure of being in the company of bell hooks through her two books on pedagogy: Teaching to Transgress and Teaching Community. I have been intending to read these because I am a disciple of much of hooks's theory. I definately had to read these before teaching my ethnic literature course in Spring 2007. I skimmed/read both today and have a good idea of where she is coming from. The main thing that I am taking from her is the idea that the classroom is a place of learning not only for my students but also for myself. It really is a place where collaboration occurs. I do believe that I have always respected my students' ideas and gave the space where they could comfortably speak their minds. I always find it hard to inspire the energy that I feel about the material in my students. They must meet me halfway or it all fails. This is the biggest obstacle that I face and one that requires our rethinking the role of the university. Am I there as a teacher to disseminate knowledge or inspire the creation of knowledge in the student through the processes of questioning, thinking, and application? My classes are filled with sheep whose only thought is what grade will I get.

I do think I made use of this type of thinking in the course that I taught the past semester, but I did underestimate the mind power of my "kids." My biggest pet peeve still remains. Why are we not teaching kids to think critically and not blindly accept what the are force fed? Every time I step in the classroom, this question plagues me and guides the way that I present information. Question everything is my mantra.

Now how do I do all of this and create a multi-purpose coure at a school that is technologically challenged. Nobody teaches you this in grad school. Ah the dilemmas of teaching. . .