Exit Slip September 10th

       After watching and discussing Frank McCourt with the class, my takeaway was Frank’s experience teaching high school students when he came to the United States. He mentioned that as a teacher, he had to accommodate his teaching based on the students’ needs, even though he had never attended high school in his life. This really stood out for me because in the past, I always thought there was a set way of teaching and simply following it equals teaching, Frank made me realize that accommodation plays a key role in teaching. On the other hand, Frank also talked about how, as an Irish himself, he had to move to a new location where he was unfamiliar with the culture and environment while also learning from the different backgrounds of students he taught. I learned a lot after hearing Frank talk about his teaching experience overseas and I strongly believe that as teachers, we need to adapt to students’ needs so students feel inclusive and motivated to learn because everyone learns differently. However, this also raised another question for me: Are students expected to adapt to teachers teaching method as well, or are they not as important as teachers adapting to students' needs? 

      At the same time, another question that struck my mind was: To what extent was he expected to learn as a teacher? As we all know, teachers learn while they teach, whether they are improvising their teaching methods or gaining new knowledge from their students, and I truly believe that teachers should always be open to learning regardless of how many years of teaching experience they have. However, knowledge is unlimited, and it makes me wonder if teachers are expected to learn as much as possible or only within their field of study, since we can only have so much information feeding into us.