Friday 5 February 2010

The 'Ah ha' moments in teaching ....

Walking the red carpet on Teachers Day 2009 in downtown Wuxi

Many people criticise teachers for their extended hours and long holidays but when asked why they didn't take the teaching path, the standard response is 'Oh no, I couldn't work with children all day!'    But, all teachers know that the job provides a lot more than great holidays and will recognise the buzz you get when a child has an 'ah ha' moment in their learning.  You can almost see the understanding sink in and it brings on a warm fuzzy feeling and a satisfaction that you got it right (well, for that child at that moment at least!).  Today, I had one of those moments.  B, aged 9 (10 in a few days as I am frequently reminded) is not a reader.  In the last month, we've had tears, rude words, dirty looks and even a tantrum in the library over reading books.  It's a painful and frustrating process for all involved but from today, no longer (well, fingers crossed).  We've finally found a book he is in to ... 'Viking Adventures' by an unfamiliar author ... and today there was no stopping him.  Our deal is to read one page each and today, B found himself reading more than one page and begging to read the next chapter.  Before you knew it, we had read the whole book, 1 1/2 hours of reading!  The look of happiness on his face was definitely an 'ah ha' moment in teaching.  Now comes the challenging part ... what will we read next???  I'm hoping that the King Arthur stories will provide enough fighting and 'manliness' to provide another 'ah ha' moment.

No comments: