october twenty second

Today I started the day by sitting in on Mr. Cohen's class. There are a couple quotes I want to write about or mention:

"When you think about funerals, the one person who they're for, isn't there."
"The main character is 145th street."
"This isn't Franklin Lakes."
"Mr. Cohen I got a brand new pen."

I'm also visiting another Ms. Ohle class, one that I haven't visited before. I love the confusion that surrounds me. When I'm not introduced formally to the class, they have a "who is she" aura about them. It's peculiar and really amusing. I come in, I write and I draw for the period. It's very interesting being an outside force to a classroom.

They seem to sort of get over the fact that I know the teacher, I'm older and bigger--but not quite old enough to be another teacher, and I only show up at random times. So what am I? Once they have looked at me, and tried to read what I'm writing in my notebook enough, they deem me something they know enough about or something they can let be part of the classroom. That isn't to say that they don't look over and see what I'm writing or drawing every once in a while.

Here's more about the class is run; Ms. Ohle puts up an agenda at the beginning of the class. No matter how free-form a teaching style or classroom is, there's always a need for some sort of structure--possibly only at this age, but more probably at every age, the only difference being the need or desire for learning being mutual (ergo: generally in college and above). At this age most students aren't really interested in learning what you teach them. With a few exceptions most want a good grade, to have fun, and a few other things that are slightly higher on the priority list. The trick of the agenda is to get them to stay on task and sometimes to dangle the things they want in front of them---until you trick them into being interested and learning.

If you don't get to someone isn't that reflective of his or her learning stlye and your teaching style? Shouldn't a teacher do everything a person can do to get to a student? What is failing as a teacher?