Portrayals of Effective Teachers in Media

Action #8

Teachers and educators constantly struggle to fuse academic learning and fun together, wanting to engage students’ interests in the class content while also allowing them to exercise their creativity and imagination. A truly effective teacher also strives to demonstrate an interest in her students and offer quality instruction to all her students, regardless of their gender, ethnicity or preferred learning style. Teachers of excellence, be they fictional or actual personages, figure prominently in several books, movies, or television shows, inspiring current educators and aspiring teachers alike to implement some of the methods portrayed in the media in their own classrooms. Even children’s television shows, like The Magic School Bus and Arthur, offer fascinating portrayals of teaching qualities that real-life educators strive to emulate or work desperately to avoid. Though humorous, these shows illustrate helpful and counterproductive instructional methods.

In the popular Magic School Bus series, the multicultural students in Miss Frizzle’s third grade classroom love their eccentric, but creative, teacher. Miss Frizzle’s passion for science pervades everything she does and often, the students themselves catch her enthusiasm. Her flamboyant clothing matches the subject matter at hand and her stories connect to class material. Miss Frizzle understands her students’ diverse personalities, kindly encouraging paranoid Arnold to more fully engage in the learning activities and tactfully handling Carlos, the class clown. Of course, Miss Frizzle owns the Magic School Bus, a fantastical vehicle capable of time travel and of transforming itself into a plane, a bat, a raindrop and numerous other objects. With this bus, Miss Frizzle takes her class on a myriad of adventures, letting them literally live the day’s science lesson. Scientists have yet to invent a bus able to perform all of the Magic School Bus’s feats, of course, but real-life teachers can still learn a lot from “the Frizz.” In order to truly be effective, teachers need to love what they teach and allow this passion to carry over into their lessons and interactions with their students. They should learn to understand and value their students’ distinct personalities and strive to make the lessons applicable, interesting and relevant to all present.

The media also offers unfavorable portrayals of teachers, as is evidenced in PBS’s Arthur. Arthur, the beloved television show’s aardvark protagonist, and his friends strongly dislike their third grade teacher, Mr. Ratburn, and the heavy homework load he constantly doles out. They are convinced that no educational methodology could be worse than Mr. Ratburn’s dry teaching style and seeming disinterest in his students. In “Arthur’s Substitute Teacher Trouble,” however, Arthur and his friends are exposed to various types of teaching methods. One of their substitute teachers mumbles and takes no time to explain the concepts to the confused students, while another smacks her lips annoyingly while talking. The worst substitute of all, however, turns out to be the one they initially loved the most. Miss Ratburn, their strict, pedantic teacher’s sister, leads the class in singing and fun activities like coloring pictures. As the days wear on, however, it becomes clear that this is all she does. Arthur and his friends become desperate for Mr. Ratburn to get well and return to the class because they fear their brains will melt from such lengthy disuse. While such fears are, of course, unjustified, Miss Ratburn’s lax teaching style demonstrates that in the end, simple fun helps no one and should not take priority over learning in a classroom setting. Even though Arthur may portray teachers somewhat negatively, lessons can be learned and applied. Mr. Ratburn and Miss Ratburn obviously represent two extremes on the teaching style spectrum, but they ultimately do embody characteristics that real-life educators should embrace in moderation. Effective teachers need to find a balance between easy diversion and exacting educational tactics.

In the end, though often humorous, both current educators and aspiring teachers can laugh and learn from teacher portrayals in popular media.

Observing Effective Teachers

Action #8

School has been an integral part of my life for the past sixteen years. Since I spend more than half of every year in some type of educational institution, I have had ample opportunity to observe teachers and their various instructional methods. As an aspiring effective teacher, this type of observational learning proves to be invaluable and will no doubt benefit both myself and my future students.

While in college, I have had the privilege to enter into several different social studies classrooms in local public schools and both watch and occasionally teach alongside the teachers working there. During my first field placement my first year of college, I observed an elderly teacher who exhibited great care and patience towards his students. He frequently encouraged them to keep on persevering in their studies, reminding them of their value and potential. In order to make all his students feel appreciated and proud of their heritage, regardless of their ethnicity or economic status, he assigned students a project that allowed them to present about their family and cultures for the whole class. The students respected this particular teacher and behaved respectfully towards him. I, too, hope to emulate these practices that make my students feel loved and appreciated for who they are.

Though observations like the one described in the previous paragraph have most certainly been helpful, I find that the most useful observing occurs in classroom settings in which I am actually one of the students. Not only do I gain a better sense of the overall classroom dynamics, but I am able to gauge how effective the teacher’s methods truly are. I have had several wonderful professors at Goshen College, but since I plan on teaching at the middle school and/or high school level upon completion of my teaching degree, I would like to briefly describe one of my secondary school teachers who left a profound impact on me.

My middle school math and science teacher, Miss Morriss, clearly exhibited many important qualities of an effective teacher. She effectively managed the classroom with the right balance of sternness and grace, encouraging and challenging students to continue in their studies and infusing just the right amount of fun and creativity into her lessons. She taught us little jingles to help us remember math equations and planned hands-on science experiments whenever possible, thoroughly engaging us in the class material. I still rely on her “Area of a Circle” song to help solve simple geometric problems. She implemented a type of token economy (“Morriss Dollars”) that provided students with an appropriate amount of extrinsic motivation to both persevere with class work and behave well in class. She succeeded in making teaching challenging and yet fun, taking every student into account when planning the lessons. Even though I dislike math, I enjoyed her classes because of the creativity displayed in lessons, the patience she took in explaining concepts, and the love she showed her students. When I become a teacher, I hope my classroom contains all of these elements. Until that time, however, I will continue observing effective teachers and continue my studies in the hopes of one day becoming one myself.