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30 November 2004: Is Anyone Listening? (2 of 2)
But once I was sure this audience ignorance thing was a pattern and not just a coincidence, I had to ask myself, is it the chicken or the egg? I mean, did these people who are obviously thirsty for an audience become teachers, subconsciously knowing that they would have thirty-two dedicated listeners? Or, more frightening, was it conscious? Some teachers, I admit I am one, have always talked like they had something important to say. Maybe they were teachers first, then got their classrooms. Or, was it the other way around? Have years of teaching forced these poor teachers to deprogram their audience monitor and continue talking long after the attention of their students has failed? I don’t have to go far to observe teachers who are more concerned about moving through the strict pacing calendar, maintaining their lecture-style pedagogy, and ignoring those who get left behind. While there are many places where a teacher’s personality enters into their teaching, I am at the moment more interested in where the teacher’s personality enters into their own life.
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