Sept 14 - exit slip (Frank McCourt)

Frank's story is very inspiring to myself as a new teacher with only a small amount of teaching experience. His easily identified traits that identified him as different from the norm seemed be his greatest strength in building rapport with his students. I feel this was the case because his teenage students also would likely be able to easily relate to the feeling of standing out. That commonality would bridge the gap between the students and their teacher which exists especially in the case of authority figures like teachers. His comments regarding not forcing students to learn made me think that in teaching to students, one should aspire to adapt and fit into the gaps students have to support and strengthen them, as opposed to forcing a rigidly structured program upon them. This seems to mean that being an effective teacher highly depends on how flexible your lesson plans can be while remaining relevant. Improvising combined with this preparation can also mean there are opportunities to relate the topic at hand to the world outside of the classroom and facilitate the students' engagement.