A Good Teacher Can Inspire Hope

Brad Henry once said “A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning.” I agree one hundred percent. If our students don’t have hope that they can learn what we are teaching them, if they can’t imagine a story or a new game, and if they don’t love at least some of the things that they are learning then school is pointless for them because they are not going to get much out of it. We as teachers can do these things in a variety of ways. One way is using many different forms of instruction in the classroom. This can include using art, movement, music, and theatre in the classroom. These can be a source of getting kids interested in learning, helping them remember what they were taught, letting them learn in their own styles and promoting creativity within those styles, and give them an outlet for students who may get easily frustrated with school. Art, movement, music, and theatre are all ways that I would do these things in my own classroom someday to promote learning.

First, getting kids interested in learning something new that they have no interest in can be a daunting task. If you don’t even give them the chance to not be interested that can be your first task. You can do this by introducing the topic in a fun and exciting way. This can be in the form of a song, or a cool picture or video, pretty much anything that captures their attention. Once you have their attention even if it is the most boring subject ever the teacher has to be excited about it. Also you can make boring lessons turn into fun lessons. Add a movement to each new step of a math problem or learn a new song about a new subject in science. Taking that extra five minutes to do something unique is what keeps kids engaged....

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...orming a classroom into a safe, secure environment is the first step and then adding all the warmth and cheer after. Then comes getting kids exciting about learning, remembering what they learn, being creative, and helping them to learn and not give up. These things are done through the use of art, music, movement, and theatre in the classroom. Art, music, movement, and theatre can be mixed in with direct teaching and help make the learning all that more enjoyable. Helping students learn in the best way possible is the goal for what is achieved in the classroom. What they learn about school and life will be with them for a long time and that impact will be huge even if it doesn’t seem so at the time. Having those experiences are what links us together and us the people that we are today. We cannot go back and change the past, but we can impact and change the future.

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