Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Expert in the Room

I am the expert in my classroom and as long as I remain inside of those four walls I am still the expert in that room where 85 students will come and go and spend a few minutes every day.

But being the one in the room with all of the knowledge and expertise comes with a cost.

Each person individually is to learn something that comes from me before the end of the year and although I can impart that knowledge in a broad spectrum of information it takes my individual attention to touch each person and motivate them to learn. Which means I have to perform daily per class period per person, that is where the high cost comes in. Sometimes I feel I need to clone myself to get to each person but then I am not the expert in the room anymore. I am one of many like me and I have to give up that prestigious position of expert.

Trying to keep up with the demand for attention in the classroom can be exhausting and frustrating but I AM the EXPERT in the room.

But then on the other hand if I can delegate an assistant among my students, train them to do a part of what I do and place them in charge of helping others I empower another person, boost their confidence and their worth and relieve myself of the tiring task of being the only person who can do the job. Then empowering another student to do another task that I do, I begin to be the coach of a team. Working together the team gets the job done.

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