Comments on: Lessons Learned from Great Educators

By: eoauk

eoauk — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 14:27:40 +0000

The following may be inspirational: http://www.orhanseyfiari.com/arigreatteachers.html

By: Lessons Learned from Great Educators – Teaching Village | Educational Oregon

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:14:58 +0000

[...] Originally posted here: Lessons Learned from Great Educators – Teaching Village [...]

By: Fifteenth Edition of the ESL/EFL/ELL Carnival | Teacher Reboot Camp

Fifteenth Edition of the ESL/EFL/ELL Carnival | Teacher Reboot Camp — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 07:41:12 +0000

[...] Barbara Saka reminds us of the importance of reflection of those who influenced our instructional styles in her post, Lessons Learned from Great Educators. [...]

By: Barbara

Barbara — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 07:53:32 +0000

What a powerful message, Alice!

Sounds like your Monsieur Gourinat was a strong teacher, to be willing to risk your trust in order to help you grow. Not many teachers would be that brave, I think.

I love teachers like your Madame Forestal–I feel good just being around them. Somehow, it seems joy is contagious.

Thanks for sharing your memories!

By: Alice M

Alice M — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 07:45:35 +0000

I had so many great teachers. They all believed in me, and trusted me. And their trust generated my trust in them. And this was beautiful because at a young age I needed that trust to progress. And then one of them, a philosophy teacher, Monsieur Gourinat, questioned my trust in him in order for me to question his views and search for answers through my own thinking. This was such an eye opener! from then on, I always make sure there is space enough in my lesson to question things, to disagree, to be surprised, to wonder.
Another great thing my teachers helped me experience is the enjoyment of being alive. My teacher of French as a foreign language (FLE), madame Forestal, was so energetic and passionate about teaching her own language that she was a pure joy to listen to. And the joy oozed from her and filled the whole classroom. Then I *knew* I wanted to become a teacher, I wanted to feel that joy again!

By: Barbara

Barbara — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:29:46 +0000

Isn’t it amazing how things stick in our minds? It’s like we have these little video vignettes forever frozen in memory–we may not remember who or where or even when, but we remember what.

Thanks for sharing this memory. Now I wonder what the ladle meant, too

By: Patrick Jackson

Patrick Jackson — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:25:44 +0000

This is so great. Thank you very much, Barbara. Personally, I remember very clearly one moment in my secondary education when a teacher brought in a sliver soup ladle, held it up for us to see and exclaimed ‘Look how beautiful this is!’. I can’t even remember who the teacher was but I still remember the ladle. I was even thinking about this just yesterday, wondering whjat that ladle means. I remember it so clearly because the teacher was doing something out of the ordinary. It stuck in my head more than anything else in 5 years at that school.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:35:48 +0000

I really enjoyed your post, too! I loved learning about your Montessori past, and found the “walkabout” fascinating. Wish we’d had that when I was in high school.

You know, those of us who grew up wanting to be teachers should probably write a blog post thanking our siblings, friends, and cousins for putting up with us when we played school. Since I don’t remember ever being a student during those games, I’m thinking they must have been extraordinarily patient to always let me get my way

By: Barbara

Barbara — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:29:47 +0000

Thanks so much for nudging me to do this. It was exactly the activity I needed to ground me in a season of hustle and bustle.

You might enjoy some of the articles about trying to bring back Navajo. The Ed policies forbidding tribal languages in schools came from a different government department than the policies you grew up with in SA, but they were equally an example of political ideology trumping common sense.

Because the schools forbid students from speaking Navajo, most of the teachers I knew from the reservation were having to learn the language in order to teach it, because (you guessed it) the schools were suddenly expected to preserve the language by passing it onto another generation who hadn’t learned it at home.

While I didn’t fully appreciate it at the time, a lot of Gina’s work with teachers was on developing techniques to empower non-fluent teachers to successfully teach a language very different from English.

It was fun to read back through the papers–working with teachers who are also less-than-fluent has given me a different perspective on that time.

Thanks for that, too!

By: Mary Beth Hertz

Mary Beth Hertz — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:08:04 +0000

Barbara,

I’m so glad you accepted Shelly’s challenge! I, too, found that as I looked back on my own education it was no surprise that I ended up where I am now. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t teaching or dreaming of being a teacher.

Thanks for sharing your memories of the wonderful teachers who helped you along the way.