The central questions asked in our class reading are: “What should you ask of your professors?” and “What should your professors ask of you?”
Please answer these questions in consideration of the author's ideas:
“Learning takes place through discovery, not when you’re told something but when you figure it out for yourself.”
“Great teachers don’t teach. They help students learn. Students teach themselves. Three of the all-time greats—Socrates, Jesus, and his Jewish contemporary the sage Hillel—share a dislike of heavyweight speeches. They spoke briefly, painting pictures, and telling tales (“parables”), and always raised more questions than they settled.”
If the whole is equal to the sum of its parts than our "whole" cannot be reached until our parts are gathered and acknowledged. This blog will act as a collection, a gallery that records our “parts and particles” (our particulars) in an effort to connect the dots; to endlessly connect the dots.
What should be asked of our teachers is how can we better ourselves. Also what can we do better in the future to better our improvement and work ethic in class.
ReplyDeleteI think that the professors shuold ask the students to put 100% effort and dedication if they wnat to be successful.
ReplyDeleteI think that the students should ask the professors to be positive and helpful despite the struggles of being a teacher.
i may ask the teacher for small details but im pretty sure elaborating wouldn't be a problem for me
ReplyDeleteI think I should ask my professsers what I need to produce to pass the class, what is expected of me. I should ask questions of them if I don't understand something. I should ask them to be patient, because sometimes I process slowly. They should ask me to do my best and give it my all.
ReplyDeleteI believe the professors should help pave the way for our success; not just saying here's your assignment, get it done, but saying this is your assignment and we are going to help you get started on it or answer any questions you may have. The professors shouldn't directly give us all the answers but help us determine how to figure out the answer ourselves. We should ask of our professors to guide us and not just teach us.
ReplyDeleteMy professor should ask of me that I do my best in everything I do and put thought into everything.
There should be a engaging mutual atmosphere between the two, boiling down to effort, creativity, motivation, and structure attained by hard work. But in a larger picture it goes back to the saying, "give a man a fish."
ReplyDeleteI should ask of my professors is help if needed. I should ask of my self for forgiveness if failure.
ReplyDeleteBeing raised in a catholic environment I have been exposed to Jesus more so than the other two. The word parables really stuck out to me. I noticed that I learned from the parables more than other form of teaching because it set the issue in a realistic situation. The parables also often ended with a moral question with no answer, leaving the reader to take what they got from it. I'm not 100% sure why, but I like the concept of raising more questions than settling them.
ReplyDeleteI feel that we should ask questions that will help and guide us in our goals in life. I also feel that we should ask about things we're curious about.Professors i feel should ask us questions that can help them understand our goals and views in life. to help them help us.
ReplyDeleteI believe both of the quotes play their part in your college career... entering the college leveled life your going to have rigorous challenges that you have to face, and its not going to be a walk in the park, you have to take it upon yourself to go above and beyond wats excepted... but they will be there to help, but it will probably have to ask for the extra attention its not apart of the agenda! :)
ReplyDelete-tequira***
I agree that teachers dont teach but help and I cant ask for much more from a teacher than an ear to listen and a hand to lend to help and i feel like the rest is up to me.
ReplyDeleteI really like Charlie's comment that the teachers and students are engaged in collaboration. We are negotiating what we know and don't know, what we can say and what we cannot say (yet), and what we need/want and don't need/have. This kind of negotiation makes the classroom dynamic and makes the students equally a part of the classroom.
ReplyDeleteWhen Ames said, in her lecture, you should drop classes you aren't interested in, I stand by that. I also stand by the idea that you should and can ask for more work, harder work, or to "read"/interpret an assignment in your own way. One of my best assignments and favorite mentors both happened in an Irish Poetry class my sophmore year of college: I asked Dr. Albert Dunn, who later became my correspondent and dear friend, if I could write a longer essay, if I could do a research paper that was not required for the class. He of course said yes and offered to work with my one-on-one. I ended up producing a 40 page research paper on a text called "Naming the Names" and the war in Ireland. The paper earned me a writing award, a stipend (read: money), and a better understanding of the academic and cultural versions of myself.
Domenic brings up another important point--we learn from application of ideas and relationships of those ideas to our real lives. That is sometimes a struggle. How do you do that when the ideas are more theoretical or when you cannot find points of relationships?
Tequira is the only one of us to refer back to the quotations, but what do those quotations mean to you? Do they ring true to your educational experience? Have you had the educational experience(s) that you want?
There is a lot to think about when choosing a college, a major, and mentors to help you work towards a degree. You need to know if Columbia is the environment you want and how you can adapt to Columbia, MAKE it what you want and need.
Do know that, with Jeff and myself, you can ask us for something if you aren't getting what you want. We are willing to change class format, writing assignments, and most of the classroom structure. We are also willing to discuss why we've made the choices we've made in teaching how we teach, what we teach.
I agree with Sierra's comment about staying positive, but at the same time honest and straightforward like Jeff mentioned at the post lecture meeting.
ReplyDeleteI think that students should ask their professors to understand what works from them learning wise and work from that and apply that to what is expected from the professors. *
*referring back to the last paragraph Kris mentioned.
Respect should always be mutual between professors and students, that plays a big role in my opinion and im sure in all of yours.
I love the first quote! I really believe in doing things on your own and experiencing all of your opportunities. It helps a lot in self discovery too. And if you have a great teacher that has influenced you in some way to go out and learn about new thing like social and political issues or maybe just anything new to you, it shows how dedicated that teacher is. And how hard they want to make an impact on you as a person and not only a student in their classroom.
I also agree with what Christian said how teachers should understand what works and what doesnt work for students.
ReplyDeleteAs for students, I think you should respect the professor by staying engaged in the class and showing your dedication.
I think that professors should help us as much as they can... but i think it is more up to the students to ask the questions that they need answered.
ReplyDeleteBut i would like it if professors to make sure students understand the material that we are working on.
I def. agree with what christian said i think that that is a awesome point because how are the professors suppose to help us get to our goals if they don't know what they are.
well in my high school career... I've had teachers that cares a lot about the student body and puts effort into making sure that you turned all your work in and everything, but I've also had teachers that has told me they don't care if i did the work or not, its up to me to progress or decline in their class...
ReplyDeleteso in reference so my response, i do believe that both parties(instructor and student)should play a part... i think the teacher should only do as much as teaching the material and the student should ASK for extra help if it is needed...
my educational experience has varied thru my schools years, in grammar school my teachers prepared me for high school... but it they held my hand thru the transition, high school prepared me for college, but they didn't hold my hand, i didn't get as much undivided attention as i did in grammar school, so thats wen i took it upon myself to ask for extra help and the teachers welcomed me in wit opened arms! so i say you shouldn't be scared to ask for a little help! cuz you never kno the outcome! =]
I'm finding that the definition of "teacher" in regards to Kris and I might be a little inaccurate. The most learning that I've ever done was when the information and trust was placed into my own hands. Like Domenic said earlier, I agree the most intriguing part about the quotes and what Ames had mentioned about the Socratic method is the idea of raising more questions than answering. Kris and I don't exist as answer machines, imparting valuable knowledge onto you; I feel that we operate better as guides or signposts, showing you the many different roads that you could take yourself down.
ReplyDeleteTaking one question and then raising several more out of it is a natural progression of learning and discovery. There is no one answer to anything. As we can see in any discussion about religion, politics, etc. there is always room to argue the point further. What we strive to show you as students are the different roads that you might take with these branching questions. We want to help you figure out which road you want to take and what would be the most fruitful for you. Figuring out how you personally best perform in college is key to this decision.
So, what I would ask of my students is to help me figure out what makes you the best student you can be. I would rather allow you to define the role that I can take during your Bridge course. As a teacher, or guide, I am completely malleable to whatever you as a student would need me to be, but housed comfortably within the walls of educational discovery and honing your voice.
Tequira, I am really interested in hearing more about the experience of having teachers tell you "they didn't care."
ReplyDeletePerhaps we should, as Jeff proposes, define these terms: teacher and student. They seem to fall into each other in my personal definition: I learn from the students and become student. Has it been that way as a student, do you feel that, at times, you have acted as teacher? And have you been teacher to your peers? The terms are not as disperate as they appear.
This tells us something about a difference between college and our earlier learning, our terms are changing and are less distinct. You will find that your binaries--teacher / student, "good" / "bad", right / wrong, black / white, etc.--will not hold or might be shaken in the college setting. For example, while there are correct ways to use the colon (lists and definitions), you are now writers who can stylistically choose when to employ the colon in a "new" way. Does that make your punctuation "wrong" or does it mean that you have learned the colon use so well that you are able to PLAY?
It can be scary to have everything turned upside down.
As a note, Abby and Tequira have set good standards for blog responses.