identitySPECIALIST

I have enjoyed working with adolescents.  I have spent alot of time up front – teaching.  Whether teaching hundreds or just a handful, teaching students has been rewarding as well as entertaining.  I’ve prepared lessons and curriculum for students.  I’ve taken classes on it; I’ve researched and studied in order to teach teens.

I am at the point now where I am interacting with students 10 years or so out of high school.  Some of them have master’s degrees, and much smarter than I am.  In my reflective practices as a teacher, I can tell you about lessons that I have given and talks that I’ve presented to all of the students that I’ve ever taught.  I can remember points and illustrations from my talks.  But when I’ve talked to these former students – I realize that they do not remember any of my points.  They hardly remember the lessons that I worked hours and hours on.  They might remember an illustration or two, but they – for the most part didn’t walk away remembering any of my talks.

What they do remember though are all of the other things that I did to them or with them.  They remember the electric/buzzer chair that we brought it and lit people up on.  They remember the food that we made them eat.  They remember the diaper illustration.  They remember the fact that I told them that I’d take them to Las Vegas when they were older and tell them stories of “when I was in college.”  They remember all of the things that I didn’t give a thought to, and they don’t remember any of the things that I spent the most time on.

After reflecting on this , I realize that I was not teaching them in their mode of learning – in the way that adolescents learn best.  Well, they do remember all of the things that I “taught” them in the mode of learning for adolescents.  I don’t think I wasted all of that time studying and preparing.  In the end, they still learned – maybe not the things that I wanted the to learn, but I was still able to teach them.