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Reprinted with permission of The Alcalde, www.TexasExes.org. Copyright by The Ex-Student's Association, 2002. Vol. 90, No. 4 March/April 2002, Page 27.
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Armour spent 30 years out in the field as a psychotherapist, and has been teaching for just two years. What that means is, although
she has the practical life experience that is essential to teach future social workers what they're going to encounter after graduation,
she occasionally discovers that she's still finding her way in the classroom. She says that teaching her first class "taught me that
I didn't have to have it all together in order to be an effective teacher. I just had to be honest about my struggle and firm about the
fact that I could not expect more of my students than I did of myself."
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Why are you a teacher? I wanted to be part of a vital endeavor, namely the education of young minds. I gain a tremendous
amount in being a teacher. I get high off of tapping the student's learning process. I also find that when I have to teach what I know,
I learn it more solidly myself.
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Are students' expectations different today than from when you were an undergraduate? Students are different in that they
want more instant answers. They do not seem as interested in ideas and developing critical thinking, which require more abstract reasoning
and less certainty.
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Have the events of September 11 affected your teaching? Yes! I found that I constantly referenced September 11 in my
teaching and set up simulated family problems for discussion as a way to make the class on family interventions more real and to help
students recognize the difficulty they might have in helping families with issues they also are addressing.
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