The Art and Science of Teaching in the United States
By Debbie Cluff
Yeats, philosopher, once said, “Education is not the filling
of the pail, but the lighting of the fire” (www.quotations
page.com). Teachers are the key to our children’s future,
they are the ones who will ignite their love for learning. Teaching
contains two major concepts of learning, the arts and the science.
The art is defined in the Encarta Encyclopedia as “the product
of creative human activity in which material is shaped or selected
to convey an idea, emotion, or visually interesting form”.
This describes exactly what a teacher does in a day, they create “human
activity”. While science is defined as, “a study of
anything that can be examined, tested, or verified” (Encarta,
2003).The teacher is always studying the situation, examining what
they can do, and verifying that their job has been complete. Teaching
is an art and science that is learned and then developed through
a teachers learning style.
Albert Einstein once said, “Believe it or not, one of my
deepest regrets [is that I didn’t teach]. I regret this because
I would have liked to have more contact with children. There has
always been something about the innocence and freshness of young
children that appeals to me and brings me great enjoyment to be
with them. And they are so open to knowledge. I have never really
found it difficult to explain basic laws of nature to children.
When you reach them at their level, you can read in their eyes their
genuine interest and appreciation (Parkway, 2001, p. 5). Albert
Einstein was a mastermind and knew that teaching children was the
only way to open little minds to great wisdom. It takes a special
kind of person, one who knew that teaching was the life, not career,
that they wanted to lead. Teachers are required to do the “dance”,
a way of smoothly persuading the students to achieve greatness.
This is the mentally, emotional, and physically preparation “dance”,
or motion, that develops the entire package of teaching the students
how to learn. This is the ability to maneuver through lesson plans,
teaching strategies, print-rich classroom environments, classroom
management, discipline tactics, parental lack of support or too
much support, and all the other encounters teachers learn to juggle.
This is the art and science of teaching, the ability to multi-task
all the above items and still manage to accomplish the goal of teaching
the students.
Daniel Lipton, Educational Theorist, explains, “A love
of learning, a love of inquiry, comes in many forms. In its various
manifestations we seem to reach beyond ourselves, to discover, create,
and uncover. We invest ourselves in and engage ourselves with the
world around us” (Lipton, 2000, 22). Teachers have made a
commitment to their students, to the lasting learning process, and
to the schools that they teach. This means that they are to find
ways to teach their class everything that the students will need
in their entire lifetime, not just the school year. Liston writes
about the love of learning and teaching by stating:
“As teachers we share this love of learning with our students.
To teach
is to share publicly this love; it is to ask others to be drawn
in by
the same powers that lure and attract us; it is to try to get our
students to see the grace and attraction that these "great
things" have
for us. In teaching we reach out toward our students in an attempt
to
create connections among them and our subjects. We want them to
love
what we find so alluring.”
As a teacher, you cannot settle for anything less than complete
knowledge and dedication to your students. This requires an eagerness
to teach the students to achieve far beyond their expectations of
the classroom, a desire to stay educated. An example would be, that
of a parent not letting their child leave the home without the proper
skills and developments to live by themselves. Teachers do not want
their “children” to go into life without the proper
education (Cain, 2001).
Liston writes, “Good teaching entails a kind of romantic
love of the learning enterprise; it is motivated by and infuses
other with a love of inquiry…if guided by an enlarged love,
teaching can become an ongoing struggle that nourishes our students’
and our own soul”. (Liston, 2000, p. 81). Teaching is based
on both a physical and emotional level, or “emotional and
intellectual work”. No matter what the age or grade level
that is taught, teachers are effective through emotions and ideas
on how to spark the student’s interest in learning. When a
teacher is successful in a lesson plan, it feels as though anything
can be conquered. This is an affirmation that most professions will
never achieve in their careers (Liston, 2000). Teachers have learned
that the art of teaching is to shape and explore the needing minds
of their students.
Frank Smith, a leading educational theorist, remarks, “The
brutally simple motivation behind the development and imposition
of all systematic instructional programs is a lack of trust that
the teacher can teach and that the student can learn. To be effective,
teachers must have flexibility to tailor their methods to the needs
of individual students” (Perlich, 2000, pg. 1). This is the
art and the science of teaching - the ability to put the trust back
into the teacher and the students and to do it in a creative manner.
Lesson planning is one of the ways that teachers can develop flexibility
and tailor the needs of individual students. This is because the
lesson plan is the core of the classroom stability and what will
really make the student want to learn. There is a special art/style
that a teacher must possess in order to accommodate to these classes.
Lesson plans need to hold onto the child’s interest and also
to each student’s learning style. The lesson should be well
thought out and very well planned, on the teacher’s behalf.
Lesson plans should follow these simple rules:
Identify the special needs of each student through assessment
and evaluation.
Choose a lesson based on the needs of the group and the
experiences or lessons wanted to learn.
Make good decisions on how the book will be used in the
class (Batzle, 1996).
Other questions a teacher might think of when developing lesson
plans are ‘is it interesting to the students?’ and ‘how
long will it keep their attention?’. Learning should be fun
and not something that gets moans and groans when talking about.
Sesame Street is a great program for children to watch and this
program is done in a manner what children, as young as 12 months,
don’t realize that they are learning. Melanie Roberts, Special
Education Teacher, noticed that her 20 month old son could count
to 20 without her help. Upon further investigation, she found that
he had learned this from Sesame Street. He didn’t even know
he was learning because he was enjoying what he was doing (Roberts,
2003). This is how teacher’s lessons should be, an unknown
learning process. A way to do this is to always educate yourself
and learn new strategies for teaching subjects.
For reading, a fun and educational lesson plan would be to have
the students read or have the teacher read a favorite book. When
the book is finished assess the students by shared writing or a
writing workshop. An example would be reading the book, “Stone
Soup”. After having read the book, the students will then
make the story into a poster, create a new ending in groups, use
a setting to create a postcard, or create a paper doll for each
character and act out the book. The teacher can even have a special
stone and make soup with the class after the lesson and assessment
has been done. There are so many ways to have the students learn
without realizing this. Another great resource would be to use online
reading sites. Links for Learning, [http://www.links-for-learning.com]
has a great resources book site for teachers. These books provide
grade leveled reading books.
Diane Perlich, leader for the California Literature Project,
states, “Anyway you look at it, children in our classroom
will live in the future and it is out responsibility as educators
to provide the learning environment in which they can be successfully
prepared” (Perlich, 2000, p.1). A print rich environment is
so important in developing a positive atmosphere that will provide
learning in the classroom. With this aura developed by the teacher,
the students will be able to openly express their thoughts and personality,
breaching the door between a higher thought process and that child.
This room will provide a place for the students to escape from any
hardships they might encounter outside of the classroom and allow
this place to be their “safe haven”. A good example
of how to make a classroom print-rich friendly is to have a moveable
word wall. This is a giant piece of paper with the alphabet attached
to it. When the students learn a new word, their spelling words,
etc. the teacher attaches that word to the “Word Wall”
under the appropriate letter. This will help with phonics, sight
reading, and memorization of words. A literacy-rich environment
would include, learning centers, colorful rugs, or grouped seating
arrangements. Anything can make a classroom print-friendly, as long
as the classroom will allow the students to feel important and comfortable
when learning.
Lelia Christie Mullis, teacher of 20 years, writes, she encourages “students
to reach back into their own memories and remember the fears, the
embarrassment, and the joy of learning they felt… I hope
they will give their students a liter positive environment, full
of oral and written languages, which breeds joy more than any other
emotion. That magical process we call learning can change lives
forever” (Perlich, 2000, p. 105). This is what teachers strive
for, a place where learning is the center of each student’s
thinking. A teacher must be able to bring the information to the
students in the way that she creatively thinks is effective. She
must be able to establish positive relations with her students and
their parents. She must create the lesson plans that she feels will
be significant. The teacher must be the master of her room, allowing
the atmosphere to reflect her teaching style. She must have complete
control of her classroom and what happens inside of it. This is
called education and, education is the art and science of teaching.
References
Cain, M.S. (2001). Teaching, the Social Aspect. Phi Delta Kappan,
82 (9), 702.
Batzle, J. (1996). Recommended Reading and Writing Strategies.
New Haven: Yale University Press.
Parkway, F.W. (2001). Becoming A Teacher. In Art and Science
of Teaching. Boston, Pearson Education Company.
Perlich, Diane (2000). Lets put phonics in perspective. K-3 Core
Literacy
Training: Los Angeles, University of California-Los Angeles Press.
Roberts, M.R.B. (2003). A conversation with Melanie Roberts (interview
with Deborah Cluff).
Quotation. (2003). Retreived on July 20 from [http://www.quotaionspage.com]
Debbie Cluff is a teacher of 1st grade. She has been teaching
for 3 years and has recieved her M.S. in Education. She has two
children and is the oldest of 10 kids. She is the co-owner of Links
for Learning, [http://www.links-for-learning.com], an internet tutoring
and instant homework help site.
Article Source: Debbie Cluff
I Teach America
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Port St. Lucie, FL 34988
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