ON TEACHING: Sound Teaching

It would be wonderful if a visitor to my classroom said there was “sound teaching” going on, because that’s the kind of teaching I’ve been working toward for many years. Above all, I want my teaching to be sound – built upon a firm, unshakable foundation. My goal is for every word I say and every activity I plan to be as solidly based as a well-constructed building. I want my students (and any visitors) to clearly sense that there’s a dependable base, a sound support, under every lesson I teach. In addition, I would hope that everything I say in class could be called “sound”, in the sense that it is based on valid reasoning. When I make a comment, I hope my students say to themselves something like, “That was a sound observation by Mr. Salsich”. I’d like them to see me as someone whose words come from a place of consideration and logic, not caprice and speciousness. Finally, I would hope a visitor would see, after observing one of my lessons, that it was a thorough and complete lesson. Hopefully the lesson would have a clear beginning, middle, and end, each part of which would be covered in a meticulous manner. The visitor, in my ideal fantasy, would walk out of the room saying, “That was a sound lesson, indeed."