Tuesday, November 13, 2007

The best courses I have taken in Teacher Corps are those taught by Professor Mullins. The main reason is because they are the only intellectually stimulating courses I’ve encountered at the School of Education. Professor Mullins loads his lectures with allusions to history and politics, two of the topics that attracted me to Mississippi in the first place. When I am sitting in Professor Mullins’ class I feel like I am challenging my brain, which to me should be the primary goal of all education. I even feel open to asking vaguely odd questions, even if they make me seem like an idiot/bigot in his eyes, which I am sure I did with a certain question I posed in our most recent class.

Beyond providing intellectual stimulation, Professor Mullins’ class also allows me to center myself in that it forces me to pull away from the issues I am currently experiencing at school and re-focus on the original reasons I joined the Teacher Corps. Along with everything else, Professor Mullins is continually inspiring.

However, the most interesting single class I’ve attended as a Teacher Corps member was actually part of my second-least favorite Teacher Corps class, Strategies for Teaching English. Our teacher actually brought in her sister, a specialist in teaching reading, to address the class. Again, I think this helped me a little in the classroom, but I was more fascinated by the intellectual side of it and saw it as a possibility of what a master’s program in education could be: an academic study of how people learn best and what we as teachers can do to address those varied learning styles. It was one of the most interesting hours I’ve spent since coming to Mississippi, and given all the experiences I’ve had, that’s saying a lot.

1 Comments:

Blogger a girl has no name said...

I'm a first year teacher in Tucson's South Side and would love to discuss educational strategies with you! I teach 8th grade Language Arts and Reading (or try to).

2:10 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home