still learning
Even after teaching for almost 3 years there are new things that I am learning to incorporate in the classroom in order for the students to be successful.
Daniel,
Good comments for all instructors. We do need to be life long learners if we are to stay current in our field and our delivery techniques.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I think that's probably very healthy. I am a complete "newbie" to teaching in an educational setting but I imagine that the fundamental concept of lifelong learning applies to instructors the same as it applies to everyone else. Frankly, I would be a little wary of anyone that thinks they don't have room to learn, grow and change. We live in a dynamic world and if we aren't learning and adapting then we probably aren't doing it right.
Kudos to you, Kelley!
Pamela,
You have a great attitude toward the work you are doing. I like to see passion for one's field and enthusiasm for teaching about it. You have both and as a result you are going to continue to grow and refine your instructional delivery while impacting the lives of your students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I agree with this posting. One of the things that I have found as a new instructor to career college teaching is that reflection is necessary for personal growth. This phase I have found myself reflecting on my 1st day and 1st phase and I must say that I see growth within my teaching style, expectations, and just the way in which I approach my day with my learners. I am still a work in progress but I am learning to enjoy learning with my learners as I teach them the skills in which I have been blessed with.
Tim,
Thank you for sharing this example with us. This is why we need to constantly be on the lookout for different ways to present material so it appeals to the different learning preferences of our students. This should give us all a cause to step back think about the solution and then come up with creative ways to help our students be successful.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
The comments of always learning are so on target. I have been teaching for a long time, but I always seem to pick up good information from other instructors, or as in this discussion, am reminded of the importance of staying open-minded. I started teaching back in 1986. My instructional background is with Private Post-Secondary Students in the IT field only. Even though I am in a certain corner with my experience I do have students that have different learning styles.
Last year I recall teaching on the subject of configuring Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for a network of computers and having difficulty with one of my brighter students. The rest of the class seemed to get the material, but after several different examples on the board and allowing other students to walk through the sequence of steps, this student just could not grasp the material.
At one point I remembered speaking with a Math instructor about my students and she explained how some of them really enjoyed talking about the binary representation of computer information. At that time I started explaining the steps using the binary form instead of the decimal form of the address to explain how we handle creation and changes. Within 5 minutes the student was nearly an expert on the matter. Then, he could even explain it back to me in the decimal format.
In this situation I was reminded to try different teaching styles no matter how minimal they may seem.
Frank,
Right you are. This is where the saying comes in that goes "to teach is to learn twice, once as a student and again as a teacher". I like this saying and what it implies. Learning new things and keeping current in my field is something that I really enjoy and gets me motivated as I share with my students. Glad to hear it is exciting for you as well.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
We never stop learning as instructors or teachers . This is what keeps it exciting to me .
