![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
::shiver::
Sep. 24th, 2005 01:09 pmI just cracked open my sock drawer. Fall is here.
Sep. 24th, 2005
I hate DUH moments, don't you?
I am a certified teacher, I'll have you all know. Got my B.Ed. in Intermediate-Secondary (i.e. grades 7-OAC) Computers and History at Queen's University. Taught for four years, all ages (mostly adults) and all learning abilities/disabilities. I've dealt with dyslexics and geniuses, I've dealt with students with Alzheimers, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, drug-induced memory and comprehension problems, deaf students, students from other cultures... I've done it all.
After I quit teaching high school and stayed home with our kids, I decided to upgrade a little and got my Primary Additional Basic Qualifications (grades K-3), and then was a substitute teacher a few times. Taught grades 4-11, math, music, geography, English... even cooking.
All this to say that I know a fair bit about teaching. So if I decide to home school, I am obviously far better qualified to do it than your average home schooling parent. Right?
Um, no.
I've heard, from countless other home schooling parents (including former teachers) that being a 'real' teacher does not necessarily make you a better home schooling teacher. Because regular teachers are extensively trained in teaching groups of kids; what works when dealing with a group does not always work when dealing with an individual. Just ask Fezzick in The Princess Bride. ( what? ) And also because your child is your child before they are your student, and there is a huge difference betwen the two.
For the record, I believed all of the above before I started home schooling myself, and every time somebody has said, "Oh, I guess it'll be OK for you, then, since you were a teacher anyway" I've tried to correct their misconception.
But I hadn't yet experienced it before this week.
One of the things that has expasperated me the most about Justin in the past year has been his complete disinterest in, and inability to, learn Spanish. He doesn't want to, and he seems to have almost no capacity for it whatsoever. It's almost ludicrous. It's like Spanish words just don't register with him; he can't keep them in his mind. I've always assumed the apathy and inability went hand in hand, but on Wednesday I was starting to fear that he was actually mentally deficient, because we had an exchange that was almost Monty Pythonesque in its ridiculousness:
Me: Table is mesa and chair is silla
Justin: Table is mesa and chair is silla
Me: How do you say table?
Justin: I don't know.
Me: OK, say it five times. Table is mesa.
Justin: Table is mesa (x5)
Me: What's table in Spanish?
Justin: ...
Me: M...
Justin: M?
Me: Meh...
Justin: Mey?
Me: Messsss...
Justin: Mesa!
Me: Good! Now say "chair is silla" five times.
Justin: (does so)
Me: Now say table is mesa.
Justin: (does so)
Me: What's a mesa?
Justin: I don't know.
Me: What's a silla?
Justin: Table?
We went on like this for ten minutes, and never once did he get it easily. Not once. Ten minutes, repeating both over and over, and by the time I gave up he still looked completely blank when I asked him how to say table in Spanish.
So I'm thinking this is unbelievable - how can a child not learn two measly words? Children's brains are hard-wired to learn language. It's what they do. At no point in Justin's life will he ever be as good at learning language as he is right now. And he can't manage two words in ten minutes?
I was a tad frustrated.
The next day, while working with Daniel and thinking about how to make Spanish vocabulary a little more interesting to him, I put together a group of objects. His first set of words was classroom objects, so out came a little pile of pencils, erasers, scissors, etc. Then family relationships; out came some family pictures.
And as I was testing Daniel, "Donde esta el padre? Donde esta la abuela?" I wondered if it would make any difference to Justin to see the words, instead of only hearing them.
So over lunch I took pieces of his toy foods (the boy loves food - the first big present he ever got was a Fisher Price toy kitchen with matching food) and put them in front of him.
Me: ::picking up juice and milk:: This is 'jugo' and this is 'leche'. Where is the jugo?
Justin: ::points to the juice::
Me: Where is the leche?
Justin: ::points to the milk::
Me: This is pan and this is papa. Where is the pan?
Justin: ::points to the bread::
Me: And the papa?
Justin: ::points to the potato::
Me: And the leche?
Justin: ::points to the milk::
Me: And the jugo?
Justin: ::juice::
Me: And what's this? ::holding up the bread::
Justin: Pan!
No hesitation, no difficulty whatsoever. And he went on to correctly identify salad, chicken, and cheese. And when I threw in the silla and the mesa, he pointed to each with no trouble at all.
You know, I took "Exceptional Children" as my "Educational Techniques" course at Queen's. And every course we had stressed the importance of identifying different learning styles: the visual v. the auditory learners, the ones with dyslexia and/or dysgraphia (sp?), the linear v. non-linear thinkers... and yet it didn't occur to me to try a simple change in presentation with my own kid.
Because he's not some student I have to get to know. I don't need to use my B.Ed. bag of tricks on him; he's my own kid. And he doesn't have any learning disabilities. Cause I would know, right? Come on! I'm his mother! How could I not know?!
Como se dice dunce cap?
I am a certified teacher, I'll have you all know. Got my B.Ed. in Intermediate-Secondary (i.e. grades 7-OAC) Computers and History at Queen's University. Taught for four years, all ages (mostly adults) and all learning abilities/disabilities. I've dealt with dyslexics and geniuses, I've dealt with students with Alzheimers, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, drug-induced memory and comprehension problems, deaf students, students from other cultures... I've done it all.
After I quit teaching high school and stayed home with our kids, I decided to upgrade a little and got my Primary Additional Basic Qualifications (grades K-3), and then was a substitute teacher a few times. Taught grades 4-11, math, music, geography, English... even cooking.
All this to say that I know a fair bit about teaching. So if I decide to home school, I am obviously far better qualified to do it than your average home schooling parent. Right?
Um, no.
I've heard, from countless other home schooling parents (including former teachers) that being a 'real' teacher does not necessarily make you a better home schooling teacher. Because regular teachers are extensively trained in teaching groups of kids; what works when dealing with a group does not always work when dealing with an individual. Just ask Fezzick in The Princess Bride. ( what? ) And also because your child is your child before they are your student, and there is a huge difference betwen the two.
For the record, I believed all of the above before I started home schooling myself, and every time somebody has said, "Oh, I guess it'll be OK for you, then, since you were a teacher anyway" I've tried to correct their misconception.
But I hadn't yet experienced it before this week.
One of the things that has expasperated me the most about Justin in the past year has been his complete disinterest in, and inability to, learn Spanish. He doesn't want to, and he seems to have almost no capacity for it whatsoever. It's almost ludicrous. It's like Spanish words just don't register with him; he can't keep them in his mind. I've always assumed the apathy and inability went hand in hand, but on Wednesday I was starting to fear that he was actually mentally deficient, because we had an exchange that was almost Monty Pythonesque in its ridiculousness:
Me: Table is mesa and chair is silla
Justin: Table is mesa and chair is silla
Me: How do you say table?
Justin: I don't know.
Me: OK, say it five times. Table is mesa.
Justin: Table is mesa (x5)
Me: What's table in Spanish?
Justin: ...
Me: M...
Justin: M?
Me: Meh...
Justin: Mey?
Me: Messsss...
Justin: Mesa!
Me: Good! Now say "chair is silla" five times.
Justin: (does so)
Me: Now say table is mesa.
Justin: (does so)
Me: What's a mesa?
Justin: I don't know.
Me: What's a silla?
Justin: Table?
We went on like this for ten minutes, and never once did he get it easily. Not once. Ten minutes, repeating both over and over, and by the time I gave up he still looked completely blank when I asked him how to say table in Spanish.
So I'm thinking this is unbelievable - how can a child not learn two measly words? Children's brains are hard-wired to learn language. It's what they do. At no point in Justin's life will he ever be as good at learning language as he is right now. And he can't manage two words in ten minutes?
I was a tad frustrated.
The next day, while working with Daniel and thinking about how to make Spanish vocabulary a little more interesting to him, I put together a group of objects. His first set of words was classroom objects, so out came a little pile of pencils, erasers, scissors, etc. Then family relationships; out came some family pictures.
And as I was testing Daniel, "Donde esta el padre? Donde esta la abuela?" I wondered if it would make any difference to Justin to see the words, instead of only hearing them.
So over lunch I took pieces of his toy foods (the boy loves food - the first big present he ever got was a Fisher Price toy kitchen with matching food) and put them in front of him.
Me: ::picking up juice and milk:: This is 'jugo' and this is 'leche'. Where is the jugo?
Justin: ::points to the juice::
Me: Where is the leche?
Justin: ::points to the milk::
Me: This is pan and this is papa. Where is the pan?
Justin: ::points to the bread::
Me: And the papa?
Justin: ::points to the potato::
Me: And the leche?
Justin: ::points to the milk::
Me: And the jugo?
Justin: ::juice::
Me: And what's this? ::holding up the bread::
Justin: Pan!
No hesitation, no difficulty whatsoever. And he went on to correctly identify salad, chicken, and cheese. And when I threw in the silla and the mesa, he pointed to each with no trouble at all.
You know, I took "Exceptional Children" as my "Educational Techniques" course at Queen's. And every course we had stressed the importance of identifying different learning styles: the visual v. the auditory learners, the ones with dyslexia and/or dysgraphia (sp?), the linear v. non-linear thinkers... and yet it didn't occur to me to try a simple change in presentation with my own kid.
Because he's not some student I have to get to know. I don't need to use my B.Ed. bag of tricks on him; he's my own kid. And he doesn't have any learning disabilities. Cause I would know, right? Come on! I'm his mother! How could I not know?!
Como se dice dunce cap?
