Friday, July 12, 2019

It’s Really About the Teacher

CSTA 2019 gave me a lot to think about. Today I was thinking about what was impressive and I thought about the Tuesday lunch panel. Microsoft brought a panel of high school students to talk about how computer science education was changing their lives.

None of these students talked much about the programming languages they learned or really any of the technology. No talk of robots, or other gimmicks. What they talked most about was their teachers.

They talked about teachers who got to know them as people. Teachers who encouraged them to try new things. Teachers who supported them when they ran into obstacles. Teachers who valued them as people.

New programming languages are cool. Gadgets can help us make things more interesting. When you get right down to it though the key factor is student success is largely dependent in the teacher. I don’t know who said it but it is true – they may not remember what you said but they will remember how you made them feel.

2 comments:

Tuesday said...

Quote is by
Maya Angelou
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Mike Zamansky said...

I've been saying it's all about the teacher for years:

That One Inspirational Curriculum

And it's not just how you made them feel but really so much more.