As part of my fellowship, we have a seminar. And, as part of the seminar, we had to read Teaching With Love and Logic. Basically, it's a book on classroom management, especially for middle and high school, I think. There are elements that apply to high education as well, but when was the last time you sent a student to time out in a college course?
The basic idea of the book is that students will behave better if you are able to build a positive relationship with them. Additionally, it is essential to avoid power struggles and focus on presenting students with opportunities to solve problems for themselves.
One of the other fellows claims that she uses it on her kids and husband and that it works. Another fellow thinks it's hogwash and said that one of his professors saw the book (which has a purple cover) and said "Looks pretty girly." I'm not sure. I don't think that it is good for us as fellows because the key principle is building relationships, which is difficult in the limited time we are in classes. But, it might be a good read for Nicole (want my copy?). Maybe it will entice her to get back in the classroom?!?
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Teaching With Love and Logic
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3 comments:
Nicole read this book back in 2005 and I believe still has her copy. I think she did find it useful at the time. Perhaps she will say more.
Has she not been following their advice for dealing with parents?
And maybe girly is exactly the quality great teachers need? Your fellow fellow sounds like he's blocking out a great (girly) part of life!
But seriously, the question you raise about the key principle of building relationships, and how much time one has to do this, is a question I have, too. At a small school like ours, where students generally have (and expect) a lot of personal contact with faculty, it can be overwhelming -- every semester, you have 60-100 new people to remember and think about, and considering we're only supposed to have emotional room for about 200 "friends" (according to some study I read of long ago) if you get involved with students to a significant degree it seems as if it crowds other important relationships out. I suspect there is a way to sort of organize it mentally and emotionally where students are an "in-between" category -- you are emotionally neutral & just engage with them about their work. But artwork is so often very personal that the boundaries aren't necessarily that clear. I guess I have the opposite problem from you, Evan, in that there are too many opportunities to form relationships with students.
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