Learning is a lot like fishing: everyone can do it and everyone can be successful. If you walk to the river with me I will inspire a new passion for fishing that you may not have realized you had before. As a teacher, I want to lead students to find that passion and love for learning by sharing my own experience and passion with them. Instructing students on the river or in the classroom requires patience, attention to detail, and realizing that I am as much of a student to teaching as my students are to learning. I can demonstrate the skills of casting like that of reading a book and assist learners where they need guidance and where it is they need help.
In the classroom, the rocks become desks, the trees become posters and the students remain the angler willing to learn; the target of learning is the fish in which I will be as ecstatic as those who catch on to that piece of knowledge they did not have before. To begin making those catches, students must be taught in bite sized bits to ensure success for the long term. Like casting a fly rod or reading a book students need to be taught the habits of good readers so that they themselves become good readers. Reading proficiency does not come overnight but through practice and learned skills to improve comprehension and vocabulary. Through regular practice and instruction students can then become the ones that take to the river themselves and begin to fish uncharted waters. Offering time to read with structured reading goals in the classroom I will invite students to become independent readers and begin to foster new loves for reading. As the students’ guide, I can either feed my students the answers, or show them ways to grow and learn so that they can become lifelong learners. I believe that promoting students to become lifelong learners is more important than simply feeding them the tools to success for one year.
As an educator I must also look at what I am teaching and how I am intending to catch my students’ attention. Like fly fishing, I must present the fly in such a way that what I am teaching is as enticing as the many other distractions around them. In a lot of ways students are like fish when it comes to reading: they are particular. It takes a passionate teacher to keep trying to get the students to bite and become hooked on reading and learning. Like changing flies regularly, I can ensure that my instruction and strategies always offer a new way for students to learn. There is no one perfect method of teaching, offering different ways for students to learn and be engaged will allow for a variation of instruction to reach as many students as possible. Offering multiple ways of engagement such as blog writing, class discussions and journal response will offer multiple opportunities for students to engage with content and learn by using different modes of engagement. Some students may not feel as engaged with a whole class discussion but may feel more comfortable to come out of their shell during a think pair share activity. Having a variety of activities for students to become engaged invites the learning process to become achievable and offers multiple points of access for learning and engagement.
In addition to having multiple ways to engage learners, the instructor must have passion for what they are doing and teaching. If the instructor does not have a passion for what they are teaching, it will be an upstream battle to get students to want to learn what is being taught. With a passion for teaching students will have a more engaged leader and will have that inspiring light to follow up the river of knowledge. As a lifelong learner I will share in the excitement when my students learn and demonstrate my own learning process so that my students have a role-model that is as excited about learning as I hope to instill in them. Seeing students follow the passion of their teachers and make connections in their learning excites me more than leading another angler to that big fish. I can see students rise to the surface and take that first sip of knowledge, and in that instance they are hooked and one step closer to achieving their goals as students. It is this moment that I strive to reach as a teacher in every class, getting students one by one and in the masses to rise to the surface to take that chance and learn just a little bit more.
In the classroom, the rocks become desks, the trees become posters and the students remain the angler willing to learn; the target of learning is the fish in which I will be as ecstatic as those who catch on to that piece of knowledge they did not have before. To begin making those catches, students must be taught in bite sized bits to ensure success for the long term. Like casting a fly rod or reading a book students need to be taught the habits of good readers so that they themselves become good readers. Reading proficiency does not come overnight but through practice and learned skills to improve comprehension and vocabulary. Through regular practice and instruction students can then become the ones that take to the river themselves and begin to fish uncharted waters. Offering time to read with structured reading goals in the classroom I will invite students to become independent readers and begin to foster new loves for reading. As the students’ guide, I can either feed my students the answers, or show them ways to grow and learn so that they can become lifelong learners. I believe that promoting students to become lifelong learners is more important than simply feeding them the tools to success for one year.
As an educator I must also look at what I am teaching and how I am intending to catch my students’ attention. Like fly fishing, I must present the fly in such a way that what I am teaching is as enticing as the many other distractions around them. In a lot of ways students are like fish when it comes to reading: they are particular. It takes a passionate teacher to keep trying to get the students to bite and become hooked on reading and learning. Like changing flies regularly, I can ensure that my instruction and strategies always offer a new way for students to learn. There is no one perfect method of teaching, offering different ways for students to learn and be engaged will allow for a variation of instruction to reach as many students as possible. Offering multiple ways of engagement such as blog writing, class discussions and journal response will offer multiple opportunities for students to engage with content and learn by using different modes of engagement. Some students may not feel as engaged with a whole class discussion but may feel more comfortable to come out of their shell during a think pair share activity. Having a variety of activities for students to become engaged invites the learning process to become achievable and offers multiple points of access for learning and engagement.
In addition to having multiple ways to engage learners, the instructor must have passion for what they are doing and teaching. If the instructor does not have a passion for what they are teaching, it will be an upstream battle to get students to want to learn what is being taught. With a passion for teaching students will have a more engaged leader and will have that inspiring light to follow up the river of knowledge. As a lifelong learner I will share in the excitement when my students learn and demonstrate my own learning process so that my students have a role-model that is as excited about learning as I hope to instill in them. Seeing students follow the passion of their teachers and make connections in their learning excites me more than leading another angler to that big fish. I can see students rise to the surface and take that first sip of knowledge, and in that instance they are hooked and one step closer to achieving their goals as students. It is this moment that I strive to reach as a teacher in every class, getting students one by one and in the masses to rise to the surface to take that chance and learn just a little bit more.