Gracezrealm

Hopeful pedagogy I feel like I've been in limbo for the past couple of weeks. It almost seems like we've been given the question "What is the meaning of life?" I kept thinking "What is the meaning of teaching?" That is how I have seen this question of what hopeful pedagogy means. I decided to go back to the drawing board before I developed another white hair or two (I have seven since starting this course). I decided to look up these words in a dictionary: According to the __Gage Canadian Dictionary__ (1983), hopeful is defined as a “feeling or showing hope” and “giving or inspiring hope” (p. 562). Pedagogy is defined as “the profession of teaching” and “the science or art of teaching” (p. 833).

Taking these definitions into mind, I believe that hopeful pedagogy takes place when teaching acts as the driving force of the learner’s inspirations. To put it simply, students do and want to learn because what you teach them inspires them.

Reference Gagelearning. (1983). //Gage canadian dictionary//. Gage Learning Corporation: Toronto, ON.

I would like to share with you a poem from one of the books I’ve been reading for my research project: // I Am A Child // // I am a child. // // I come to you, a teacher. // // I bring a whisper. // // Can you hear the poem in it? // // I am a child. // // I come to you, a teacher. // // Will you tell me what to think, // // Or show me how? // // Will you teach me answers, // // Or the symmetry of a question well composed? // // I am a child. // // I come to you, a teacher. // // Will learning be only about doing things right, // // Or about doing the right thing? // // A thing of joy, // // Or of duty? // // I am a child. // // I come to you, a teacher. // // Which will matter most to you, // // My soul, // // Or my grade? // // I am a child. // // I come to you, a teacher. // // Can you teach me to chart my journey, // // Or must you use a standard measure // // To place me always // // In the shadow of others? // // I am a child. // // I come to you, a teacher. // // Will I go away from you ascending my strengths, // // Or hobbled by my weaknesses? // // I am a child. // // I come to you, a teacher. // // I bring you all I am, // // All I can become. // // Do you understand the trust? // //(unknown author, excerpt from __Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentiated Classroom__ by Carol A. Tomlinson, 2003)// I really like this poem because it looks at teaching through the eyes of a child. I thought of this poem while I was responding to one of the themes for our professional reflections: Teachers and Students. In this theme, the emphasis is placed on //how// students learn, and //not// what students learn. From this perspective, hopeful pedagogy can develop from a child. From the perspective a teacher, hopeful pedagogy is about caring teachers. “Caring teachers build relationships with their students…The teacher who cares is dedicated to a lifelong quest to become the best teacher possible in order to create the optimal learning environment for the student” (Lumpkin, 2007, p. 160)

References

Lumpkin, A. (2007). Caring teachers: The key to student learning. //Kappa Delta Pi Record// (Summer). 158-161. Retrieved July 19, 2007 from ERIC database.

Tomlinson, C. A. (2003). //Fulfilling the promise of the differentiated classroom//. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development: Alexandria, Virginia, USA

If you look further into this website, you will find that it is an action research website for teachers, which I'm sure a lot of us would find very useful (if not only to glimpse at yet other perspectives of pedagogy).**
 * I have finally found an excellent webpage on hopeful pedagogy. In this webpage, a student teacher from Queen's University wrote about "Teaching for Hope." http://educ.queensu.ca/~ar/08hope.htm

ENJOY!