Re: Get These Students Motivated!!!!!/ great wisdom

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Indeed - rarely have I seen it said so well but the truth is -
each teacher has to find what works best for them because what
works best for the teacher next door may not work for you at all.
Think of it like actors - would we cast Owen Wilson as a bad guy?
Few people can play every role and most teachers play one role
well - older men can't 'fuss' over students but they can do the
'drop and give me 50' thing as this poster says.

My best principal told me 'you have to find what works for you'
and 'you will find what works for you'. If you are flexible and
willing to work some by trial and error in the beginning, you will
let yourself find what works for you. The teachers on this site
who advocate a single approach to classroom management and a
single approach to teaching are wrong in my opinion. What works
for them might not work for you.

Anger is just one example - when I get angry, my students look at
me like I'm crazy - they're not scared, they're put off by my
anger. I can't use anger even when I'm angry - it just doesn't
work for me. I can use humor and very effectively yet I've seen
other teachers try to use humor and they fall flat with it. To use
humor, you have to be able to be comfortable joking around and not
everybody is.

Anyway, I agree with this teacher who essentially said - find what
works for you. I advise young teachers to take an acting class -
and I'm not kidding. I play the 'absent-minded professor' role in
my classes and it works for me. It allows me to ignore the minor
disruptions "I'm too busy for that" and allows me to be a bit
disorganized (I am) but that role won't work for everybody.

Which is not to say there isn't some truth in our roles - which is
likely why we can play one better than the others.
 

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