Frank McCourt is undeniably an interesting character. His experience getting into teacher's college without attending high school himself, paired with his unique outlook on student-teacher relationships and teacher inquiry make him an invaluable source of information and perspective for new teachers.
The most noteworthy point I took from the class discussion is regarding student-teacher relationships. Regardless of your training, locality, or history, you will always have children who are culturally and socially very different from you. Even just the simple fact that we will be from a different generation will create a massive difference. I now think it's incredibly important to try to break down these differences and see things from the perspective of your students, to try and understand their section of our society.
The other big point I am taking away is that teachers must always be learning things from their students. This actually goes hand in hand with the first point. Students will teach you how to best teach them. If they are reacting negatively to a certain piece of the curriculum, find out why. Find a way to alter the assignments to something that they can relate to and identify with. Frank described this for his English classes, what I am still wondering is how we can do this for math and physics. An exciting problem to continue to try and solve throughout our teaching journey.
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