THE HIDDEN WHOLENESS: PARADOX IN TEACHING AND LEARNING
Palmer writes that we are trained to “think the world apart,” dissecting it into either-ors, but we need to learn to “think the world together,” embracing opposites and appreciating paradoxes.
The principle of paradox can guide us in thinking about classroom dynamics—and in designing a teaching and learning space that can hold the community of truth.
In what ways have you experienced “suffering” as a student
teacher? Has your suffering had any redemptive quality to it; that is, has it
made you heart larger? What would help you deepen the redemptive quality of the
suffering your experience in your work?
Well as a student teacher I have been suffering difficulties
such as difficulty with my ability to concentrate when I’m studying, or when I’m
teaching because every night I go to bed late, and it’s difficult for me to
sleep well, when I’m lying on bed I spend the time trying to find out the appropriate
way to teach, or to improve my weaknesses; also, sometimes I don’t feel
appetite because I feel worried about things that I have to do, when I fail in
something, for example in a test, or I get bad grade; also in my teaching
practice I experiment feelings of powerlessness, But living in this way have
helped me a lot, because I have improved in many areas in my life, as a
student, teacher, and even as a person, so it could be difficult now, but I’m getting accustomed to living in this way,
and I don’t want to change it because I want to be success in life.
Name some of your key gifts or strengths as a teacher. Now
name a struggle or difficulty you commonly have in teaching. How do you
understand the relation between your profile of giftedness and the kind of
trouble you typically get into in the classroom?
Well, my greatest strength as a teacher is being able to
connect with the children, and getting on their level, this allowing me the
opportunity to work with them in a comfortable environment. On the other hand
one of my difficulties when I’m teaching is to building, and maintaining the
warm, sometimes I feel frustrated when my students lost their attention on my
class and they looked bored. I figured out that I have to work on it, in order
to maintain a good managing in my class and building and maintaining a warm, I know
that I need to balance my strengths and my weaknesses in order to be successful
in teaching.
Describe a moment in teaching when things went so well you
knew you were “born to teach” and compare it to a moment in which things went
so poorly you wished you had never been born! Name the gifts that made this
good moment possible—not the techniques you used or the moves you made, but
your qualities.
Well I noticed that I born to teach when I have to teach for
the first time, and I remember exactly how confortable and happy I felt managing
the class; the students were so concentrated on what I was saying. That was
like, I had been teaching for a long time. I remember one day that I felt sick I
just wanted to rest for a while and pick up some medicine, but my tutor didn’t
come to the school, so I had to teach all the afternoon. I felt frustrated because the students were misbehaving almost
all the afternoon, and didn’t know what I could do in order they behave well, I felt like my head
wanted to explode, that day I really wanted not be a teacher, I tough that I was
wrong when I choose the major. In other to solve the problem I went to the
bathroom, and I tried to control myself. Then I came back to the classroom, and
with much patiently I put order in the classroom, and I started to teach them. I
have a lot patience with my students, I try to build confidence in the relation
teacher-student, I respect them, and their opinions, and I try to do my best
when I’m teaching. That’s qualities really helped me in a big way during my
teaching practices.
Palmer discusses six paradoxes of pedagogical design
(pp.73-83). Choose one to focus on. Share examples of teaching
environments you have experienced where this paradox is honored. Have you
ever been in a classroom where only half of the paradox was honored while the
other half was ignored? Describe what that classroom was like.
Well, I’m focus on paradox 1: the space should be bounded
and open
In my point of view I have experienced this paradox many
times, for example when I’m teaching, and the students are free to speak but
their speaking is always guided for me or toward the topic and they achieve the
learning process in that way, but also there are boundaries in the classroom in
order to avoid the chaos. Well, the
space must be open as well as bounded, if the space is just open the classroom
will be a total chaos; on the other hand if the space is bounded the students
will feel frustrated; therefore, they won’t achieve the learning.
What questions are you living at this stage of your
life—from “How can I get up in the morning? To “How can I become a good
teacher? Are the questions you are now living the ones you want to live? If
not, what questions would you like to be living? How might you hold these
questions at the center of your attention?
Well at
this stage of my life I’m living the question how can I become a good teacher,
how can I improve my skills in order to become a good teacher and leave in my
students my legacy, I think how can I prepare good citizens, every day after a
lesson I ask myself what was bad, what was good, and how can I improve, I try
to reflect on my way of teaching. I don’t want to change my way of thinking, in
the future because I don’t want to lose my feeling, I don’t to become a
traditional teacher, now a days the majority of teachers just work for the
money not for how good, or happy they feel helping the others. They forget what
was their inspiration, or what was made them to choose this hardly but enjoyable
major.
