Thinking back to my teaching days...

I'm taking a class this semester called Curriculum and Instruction in Higher Education and the first week's readings are all focusing on the love and lure of learning and that the subject, not the teacher or the students, should be the center of every classroom. The articles also argue that you cannot divorce love of the subject from the classroom and that teachers/professors/researchers should be able to show their exhilaration in their subject, as that emotion will help draw in others who are curious about it.

Now, I'm not necessarily in love with the English language, but when I taught it I now realize it should have been the center of attention. Since it was my duty to make conversation, the students were often the center of my classroom. I mean, we definitely spent the time talking, which I guess was one way of making the language the center of attention, but I think I probably could have done it better. I wonder why the Fulbright didn't bother to give us any sort of training on being a teacher? I think even having the TAs read an article or two like the ones I just read might have given us ideas about how to approach the classroom, how we might make the subject come alive for the others through our own passion for it. Granted there is an assumption in this literature that the students are in the classroom because they chose to be and not because they are forced to be, which might not work so well in high school English classes, which are generally mandatory. However a love of the subject could still shine through and engage those who are open to it according to these authors.

This doesn't mean I want to teach again, but if I come across the opportunity, I'll do it differently after this class I think. Assuming I survive the courseload that is.