It used to be simple: the teacher was the cop, the lecturer, the source of answers, and the gatekeeper to resources. All rolled into one.
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The Internet is making the role of content gatekeeper unimportant. Redundant. Even wasteful.
If there’s information that can be written down, widespread digital access now means that just about anyone can look it up. We don’t need a human being standing next to us to lecture us on how to find the square root of a number or sharpen an ave. (Worth stopping for a second and reconsidering the revolutionary nature of that last sentence.)What we do need is someone to persuade us that we want to learn those things, and someone to push us or encourage us or create a space where we want to learn to do them better.
If all the teacher is going to do is read her pre-written notes from a PowerPoint slide to a lecture hall of thirty or three-hundred, perhaps she should stay home. Not only is this a horrible disrespect to the student, it’s a complete waste of the heart and soul of the talented teacher.
Teaching is no longer about delivering facts that are unavailable in any other format.
- Seth Godin, Stop Stealing Dreams
The role of the teacher is not to teach students – it is to create a love for learning within students. Great teachers or trainers generate curiousity in their students so that the learning doesn’t end when the session does.
Pick of the Post: – Justin Bieber – As Long As You Love Me
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When Teaching, Start With The Body » Matt Corker says:
July 2, 2012 at 3:51 pm (UTC -7)
[...] how does one start with body when teaching math?” First, revisit the definition of what we teach. A correct mathematical answer comes from curiousity, tenacity, and confidence. Those are [...]