This photo is from several months ago, but the sun is starting to return to Fake Cow Town and the snow is melting. We still have about three inches of ice on our sidewalk (the part that stays in the shade), but the temperature is now warm enough that the roofers can come replace our roof. We discovered a leak when we were putting away our Christmas decorations. Yes, it has taken that long for the weather to be decent enough for the roofers.
I saw robins and a blue jay today. We will have to start putting out seed for the jays. It was a pleasant relief from the hordes of grackles that have plagued our fair city. Between them and the migrating geese, you have to watch your step in some areas. Yuck.
Today I participated in an online conference. There were several hundred people in the live audience and almost 200 logged into the synchronous presentation. The presentation concerned education and how it is changing, particularly due to technological innovations. An idea that came out was the need for teachers to be more transparent about the process of learning. We teachers are losing our role as providers of content since our students have remarkable access to information. We have to help them learn how to evaluate the information so as to make use of it. And we have to help them learn how to learn.
Did any of your teachers ever say, "Here's how I learned this concept" or "Read my journal so you will get a sense of what I go through"? I don't really remember that happening much in my education. There have been a few times when I have handed out a chart explaining that I had to put it together in order to organize the material so that I could understand it. But I have not consciously thought about letting students know how I learn things. Just think--if all your teachers in high school and college had told (or, even better, showed) you how they learned, you would have been exposed to almost 100 approaches to learning. Surely you and I would be more adept at learning if we had had that kind of education.
So I am planning on being more transparent with the biblical interpretation class that I will start teaching in about three weeks. Maybe I will invite them to read this blog site. Stay tuned.
8 comments:
Lovely photo David. We have not had any ice or snow, but it has been cold for several days in a row now. I am beginning to dream of spring!
I wonder, do you think inviting your students to read this blog will change the way you write, maybe make you more concerned with writing something "lesson-worthy" than you are now?...Does that make sense?
I'd never thought about teachers showing how they learn things although I teach younger children. It's something worth thinking about.
That's a good lesson on teaching, something I think I developed a habit of doing since coming to this school. I think it's a little easier for me because I am teaching students who, for the most part, are sitting the same classes (even same classrooms) that I was when I was taking this material. I often refer back to how I handled this material the first time I saw it. I used to think I was rambling, but now I have an excuse.
Interesting thought ... it makes sense, though. I have learned through all my management reading that people do react much better to experiences and relationship building than to just being told how to do something.
emotionally intelligent teaching! yay! I do recall a few teachers who let us know them a little. They didn't keep that huge rift - not that they were our buddy but that they told us about themselves and personal experiences. We felt we had a relationship with them - or at least I did - and I think that provides an atmosphere for more learning.
One teacher did say to us (before internet days) that there is so much to know you can never know it all, so you have to know how to find things. If you can get really good at finding things out you will be a smarter person than if you tried to memorize everything. I remembered that.
And then the internet came along. Can you imagine how that would have changed things for us in school? -- esp. college!! WOW!
good and bad. I might not have spent 5 hours a day in a practice room I might have spent 2 and 3 online!! haha.
On the other hand, typing out papers on an old fashioned typewriter and having to GO TO THE LIBRARY to LOOK THINGS UP!? wow.
anyway,. good for you.
(and thanks for your comment - I loved the story about you on your knees!)
Good question, Annie. I already have been more circumspect since discovering some of the people who read this blog (and never comment).
Welcome to this site, Carolanne! I am always glad to talk about teaching and learning. I will come visit your site.
Splineguy, how do you think it will be for you when you are teaching online? The classroom is virtual but real.
Jonboy, when you think of the things you learned as a kid, weren't the lessons that stuck with you taught by someone who did so by example more than by words? Maybe that's why Jesus used parables so much, even enacting them at times.
And, Ginny, you are WAY too young to be bemoaning the lack of internet access when you were in college! Think what it must be like for geezers like me!
I'm just BARELY too young. I remember someone saying "do you have email?" I said "what's that?" They said to ask for it at the library they might have it. (at the university I was at) So I asked and they said "email? what's that?"
Well, hell, I'm late to this party. And enough about education stuff - what about the grackles? They are insane. And huge. Insanely huge. Like the jackrabbits.
What is it about Fake Cow County that turns normally mundane animals, like birds and bunnies, in to voracious reproducers of such gargantuan size?
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