THE JOY OF TEACHING:
How Teachers Know BY RAY TETZ
A
rranged in a semicircle on
their names, excited reminders that
telling the story to her husband and
the floor, with the teacher
someone’s tooth is loose and about
friends, it is Giovanni’s face and voice
seated in a chair in front of
to fall out any minute—and a solemn
that she tries to recapture in the way
them, the kindergarten students are
demonstration of that very tooth
she tells it. It is his eagerness and
listening to a lesson about beavers.
being wiggled.
openness that has created her own
Specifically, about beavers’ front
sense of wonder and amazement
teeth—how they always keep grow-
excitedly waving his hand and can
at the process of learning. The cycle
ing, making it important for beavers to
hardly wait to be called on. When that
is complete; she has been Giovani’s
keep gnawing.
moment comes, it turns out that he
teacher, and in turn he has become
This is too much information to
doesn’t want to talk about beavers
hers. And tomorrow it will happen all
let pass unnoted; hands go up around
or teeth at all. He wants to talk about
over again.
the circle, and one by one the children
process. “Teacher,” he asks, his face a
are encouraged to share what the sto-
combination of wonder and amaze-
what is most important, or how they
ry has prompted in their eager minds.
ment and curiosity, “How do you
know they are spending their lives in
KNOW all this stuff?”
the best possible way, and a certain
There are questions about beavers, references to pets and
8
One child—Giovanni by name—is
PA C I F I C U N I O N R E CO R D E R
Later on, when the teacher is
Ask teachers why they teach, or
intensity creeps into their faces.