Blog 8 Building Bridges

Over the past few weeks we have discussed what it means to be a great teacher and what qualities some of the best teachers have. The most significant thing I have learned from this is that there isn't one specific thing teachers can do to be great. It is a combination of things that make teachers great. Some of these include being enthusiastic and passionate about your job, caring for your students, self-criticism, patience, learning from experience, and building bridges. More specifically building bridges is an important part to connect with students. While many students may find learning certain topics to be useless, it is important to show them how they can use what they are learning in the real world.  In chapter four, Ayers discusses the topic of building bridges in the classroom. Bridging what students are learning during a lesson to how it can benefit them can be hard. Ayers highlights that an important part of building bridges is balance and team work. He  also points out that it is important to also make learning fun for students.

As a math major and someone who wants to teach high school math I am aware of the fact that many students wont use much math other than basic math that they learned in the earlier years of their education. Therefore I would want to teach something that the majority of students could use in real life but also included math. Something that I think all students can benefit from, especially high school students getting ready for college, is budgeting. Using the bridge building concept that Ayers discusses, I would show students how a basic budgeting sheet can benefit them. Not only would they be able to see that budgeting can help them keep track of their money, they would also see how it could help them save money. Students would be using the math they are learning in class as a tool to help them with financial planning.

While bridge building is important to keep students engaged there are also many other aspects in planning. (1) In order for the teaching to be beneficial I would need to make sure that I am enthusiastic about the lesson (DiGiulio). If I wasn’t excited about the lesson, how could my students be excited to learn? (2) Ayers suggests that finding allies is important. Before the lesson, it could be a good idea to perhaps talk to other teachers or people to get ideas from them about budgeting and teaching about it. (3) An important idea discussed by Freire is that while teachers are teaching their students, they also need to be learning from them as well. I think that it is important that "both are simultaneously teachers and students" (104). (4) Ohanian suggests that "seeking new understanding" (124) is important and that we need to be aware of the constant changes that are happening in the classroom and in education. Doing research of my topic before teaching it is important because things are always changing and what I once could have thought was true could now be different.