Skilful teachers remind me in many way of the jugglers. According to the talent scout at Cirque de Soleil (Roy, 2015), “a good juggler if they have a high technical ability, who has developed an innovative repertoire of their own, and who can incorporate an artistic element into their act.”
In short, skilful teaching is both an art and science. Students come from different backgrounds, knowledge, experiences and even baggage when they enter the classroom. To assume that one curriculum can be applied for every single class would be asking for trouble. As such, teachers will do whatever it takes to help students to learn so much so that at times, they might have even forgotten about their professional code of ethics. Using their creativity, skilful teachers will occasionally venture outside of their comfort zones to create meaningful learning activities in order to keep students engaged and motivated. To do so, they reflect on their own learning experiences, the high and low points, what worked and what didn’t to guide their decision making. They also try to see it from the students’ lens which are a lot more complex given that the student-mix is culturally diverse. They even conduct research and reach out to their allies in the teaching community to gather insight from their perspectives. After all, “no solo teacher can expect to have an auctioneer’s eye that records every gesture, body language, or, movement in the class” (Brookfield, 2015).
At times, their innovative teaching strategy may result in a big pay-off as students feel that they are in the “Edutopia” land, where the excitement of learning goes beyond the classroom or long after they leave schools. Upon reflecting on my own personal learning journey, I had encountered such experiences, as the teachers believed that they could make a difference in my live. Indeed, they did.
On the contrary, at other times, despite the teachers' best efforts in putting checks and balances to ensure that the lessons go according as planned, their inventive approaches fall flat on their faces. Their egos are bruised, especially for students who seem to fight tooth and nail with them and do not see any value in their learning.
At the end of the day, even the best jugglers occasionally fall from grace and having to pick up themselves to re-attempt the same act. Teaching is no different. To achieve perfection is an illusion. (Brookfield, p. 267).
References
Brookfield, S. (2015). The Skilful Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Roy, S. (2015, July 15). A Juggler Career at Cirque. Retrieved from
https://www.facebook.com/notes/cirque-du-soleil-casting/a-juggler-career-at-cirque-
interview-with-talent-scout-samuel-roy/10154470042863521/