Category Archives: Nature of Teaching
Ego and Learning
I was watching a good friend teach recently and they had the students talk in small groups. In one group I noticed that a single student seemed to dominate the conversation. At one point during the small group discussion, another … Continue reading
Posted in Classroom Management, Mistaken Mondays, Relationships
Tagged Classroom Management, ego, Learning, participation, small groups
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3 reasons I use technology every time I teach
I recently co-taught a graduate course for inservice teachers. One of the modules I was leading was about educational technology. So, given the limited time (about 4 instructional hours), I had to do some hard thinking about what I wanted … Continue reading
I yelled at my students, now what?
We’d like to think that we will always take the high road when dealing with K-12 students. We hope that we will always remember that they are children and we are adults. We plan to stay calm. Using logic, we … Continue reading
Posted in Classroom Management, Mistaken Mondays, Reflection
Tagged anger, apology, temper
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4 Ways to Respond to Students
When I was a preservice teacher, I repeated almost everything my students said whenever I taught. One day, my professor observed me teaching and pointed this repetition out and suggested I not do that. Because I was still overly defensive … Continue reading
Polar Bears
We went out for dinner last night for my oldest son’s birthday. Then, we drove around to look at Christmas lights. As we drove around, our youngest son (4 years old) started talking about the north pole and whether or … Continue reading
Posted in Science Education, Science Saturday, Teacher Actions
Tagged camouflage, cash, polar bears
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Getting older (age graded school)
Today is my 36th birthday. While my age has ticked a new mark, I’m only one day older than I was yesterday. Keeping track of years to mark age is not a very precise way to measure age. I think … Continue reading
Don’t forget to smile
When I am working with preservice teachers, we talk a lot about the importance of asking questions. We develop interaction patterns we want to work toward and talk about how we can use student comments to ask our next question … Continue reading
What will become of teacher education?
Schools/programs such as Iowa BIG and Waukee APEX reflect efforts to reform education going back more than 100 years. While the people running these programs might not agree, there is a lot of similarity to vocational programs many of us grew … Continue reading
Posted in Education Reform, Learning, Nature of Teaching, Teacher Actions, teacher education
Tagged dewey, PBL, teacher education
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I wish I would have listened more
Early in my career I was (and still am to an extent) frustrated by how some of my colleagues (teachers) talked about students. I avoided the teachers’ lounge and vowed to never “be like them”. I denied having similar thoughts … Continue reading
Posted in Nature of Teaching, Reflection, Teacher Mentoring
Tagged anger, emotions, fear, teachers lounge
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Teaching is Designing: Outcomes
Designing and engineering is sometimes referred to as outcome oriented. That is, designers are working to solve a particular problem or create products with particular abilities. Given the proliferation of standards documents and value-added measures, clearly education is working to … Continue reading
Posted in Design, Goals for Students, Nature of technology
Tagged common core, goals, NGSS, Outcomes, purpose
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Teaching as Dynamic 