Workshop:Becoming a reflective teacher

Workshop: Becoming a reflective teacher :6/6/2008
Presentation: Profa. Dra. Luciana M.Colucci – UFTM
Last Friday we were delighted in having Professor Luciana giving us a workshop about “becoming a reflective teacher”. It was very useful. We’ve worked on many questions like “What makes a good teacher”, talked and made many reflections on subjects like: “Don’t go on automatic! Focus and awareness is everything (Jean Houston), the importance of a regular reflection on teachers job and we had many discussions on a special issue “teachers roles”, when, during a lesson, teachers need to manage the activities and the learners in the classroom in different ways. These different kinds of behavior are called “teachers role”. Some roles teachers often use: Planner: prepares the lesson in detail before teaching, Informer: gives information about the language or an activity, Manager: organizes, make sure everything is running and sets up rules, Monitor: goes around checking learning, Involver: make sure everybody is participating, Parent/Friend: gives support when they don’t feel well, Diagnostician: recognizes difficulties, Resource: helps and gives advice. She gave us a message with a delicious chocolate bar that said”A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step….Take the risk…(Calvin and Hobbes). Be positive, be enthusiastic on your career, she told us.
At the end of the lecture we were supposed to watch a movie ”Emperor’s Club”, where William Hundert, a retired "old-school" classic teacher is passionate about his subject. Moreover, he strongly believes in moulding his students by using principles. However, his methods are put to the test by a new student, Sedgewick Bell who shakes Hundert's controlled world and threatens to undermine all that he stands for. Hundert's challenge is to change this young man while maintaining his integrity.
We were given a task to find in this film some of different roles that professor Hundert plays. I could realize that he took many roles, all above mentioned and many others in different situations, always having in mind he was dealing with human beings. It was a wonderful film, a wonderful workshop. Very comprehensive, useful and very enjoyable. And professor Luciana is very capable, nice and sweet . Congratulations.