My name is Mr. Hamel and I will be your teacher this year.
I graduated from MacDonald High School and I am please and proud to have come back as a member of the faculty.
The core philosophical principles that guide me regarding classroom management are simple. School is not simply a place where students are made to sit in front of their teachers and listen for fifty minutes a day. Certainly for many this is how it may feel and this is what causes inattention, laziness and general apathy. My belief is that school is a place where the world opens up before you. Firstly, in the literal sense, schools open doors to future careers and possibilities. Secondly, it opens up the world in a much more philosophical sense. A school contains information that shows students how exciting and big and incredible our world is. There is so much that can be gained from going to school, if only just to see that the world is an amazing place. This was what drove me in my high school years. I did not love school, but I love exploration and learning about all different kinds of topics. To this day, I can fall deep into the rabbit hole when I find something new and interesting to learn about. I believe this is the kind of attitude we should be adopting when teaching. A teacher can stand in front of a class and lecture, and manage a class as though it were a juvenile detention center. They can tell their students that there is absolutely no bathroom breaks, no group work, and absolute silence at all times. But will that show students that there is merit in learning? No, of course not because now learning becomes a task that they have to get through to be where they actually want to be. However, you can be a teacher that stands in front of the class, introduces a topic, and invites students to explore further. You can engage in discussions, you can engage activites where students are given something that they have no prior knowledge of and are asked to explore and find things out for themselves, all the while you are leading them and guiding them through the knowledge’s rather than just presenting it.
I graduated from MacDonald High School and I am please and proud to have come back as a member of the faculty.
The core philosophical principles that guide me regarding classroom management are simple. School is not simply a place where students are made to sit in front of their teachers and listen for fifty minutes a day. Certainly for many this is how it may feel and this is what causes inattention, laziness and general apathy. My belief is that school is a place where the world opens up before you. Firstly, in the literal sense, schools open doors to future careers and possibilities. Secondly, it opens up the world in a much more philosophical sense. A school contains information that shows students how exciting and big and incredible our world is. There is so much that can be gained from going to school, if only just to see that the world is an amazing place. This was what drove me in my high school years. I did not love school, but I love exploration and learning about all different kinds of topics. To this day, I can fall deep into the rabbit hole when I find something new and interesting to learn about. I believe this is the kind of attitude we should be adopting when teaching. A teacher can stand in front of a class and lecture, and manage a class as though it were a juvenile detention center. They can tell their students that there is absolutely no bathroom breaks, no group work, and absolute silence at all times. But will that show students that there is merit in learning? No, of course not because now learning becomes a task that they have to get through to be where they actually want to be. However, you can be a teacher that stands in front of the class, introduces a topic, and invites students to explore further. You can engage in discussions, you can engage activites where students are given something that they have no prior knowledge of and are asked to explore and find things out for themselves, all the while you are leading them and guiding them through the knowledge’s rather than just presenting it.