As a community college instructor of 30+ years and retirement on the horizon, lately my thoughts have been turning to past experiences in and out of the classroom, changes in educational practices and trends, and sound teaching principles. My colleagues and I have said over and over and over again, “We ought to write this stuff down.” So I am.
My area of expertise is psychology, but if yours is English, chemistry, or basket weaving, aren’t some of the principles the same? Don’t we all share the same goals when it comes to imparting information and lighting a spark? by the way, I spent a dozen or so years of my career as a department chair, and I learned about teaching from an entirely different perspective. And of course as a lifelong learner, I’ve been on the other side of the podium often enough to know how that feels.
When I told my sweet sister that I was going to start a blog about teaching, she reminded me that we (and everyone else) were always teaching whether we were in classrooms or not. She’s so right, and I’m glad she reminded me of it. My biggest teaching “assignments” are my three children, and although they’re all responsible young adults whom I love dearly, I still try to get in those occasional teaching moments.
Greetings from Cardiff, Wales.
Look forward to reading your future blogs. My daughter encouraged me to write a “blog” because the world has changed so much in my 70 years. I just wish there had been “blogs” when my grandparents were alive.:)
Where’s your blog? I’d love to take a look at it.
I wish the ideas you embody would catch like wild fire. I believe we need to cast the vision of a better country, for us our kids and the future. I think we need to build leaders and have some of our top leaders pave the way , so we duplicate our core values though education.