Exit Slip - Sep 9

The importance of making connections with my students, and to be genuine and human around them. That's the single most important thing I took away from todays class, and from our video segment featuring Frank McCourt. Not that this was something all too new to me or probably anyone in the class, but watching Frank go through and talk about his life and experiences as a teacher and outside of his teaching career, really drives home how big of an impact it can have. Understanding your students, empathizing with them, getting to know them as a person. These are all things that are the makings of a genuine connection, and Frank sounds like he was an expert on this the way he described how he would handle situations in which the students were frustrated with or hated topics or books - how he'd sit there with them and talk about why they hate it together. I've always had the same notion that if you want the students to be interested and learn, it can't begin if they feel like it's just a process they have to go through, a chore to complete. The interest and drive to learn starts with you, the teacher. Being genuine and passionate about teaching can go a long way in my short experience as a tutor. Make them laugh, make them feel like they're heard, make them feel like they're talking to a human being. this is something I learned early on, and there's more lessons ahead of me, I'm sure. "If you're teaching and you're not learning, you're not teaching." - Frank McCourt