Reflecting on "Principles of Teaching and Learning"

Reading both the learning and the teaching principles discussed in the article (“Principles of Teaching and Learning”) felt like a reflection of so many conversations happening at my school right now. The learning principles are exactly what our new reader’s workshop initiative is based upon; so many of the mini-lessons I have witnessed involve activating or reflecting upon prior knowledge, learning how to organize information and knowledge, acquiring/practicing/applying new skills, providing quality feedback, building motivation, and teaching students metacognitive practices. Although I have recognized all of these as quality educational practices, it was still eye-opening to read these through the frame of this new initiative, perhaps since the new initiative has been a struggle, for some staff members at some times. Seeing these learning principles listed in black and white while considering my own feelings about our reading workshop initiative helped me shift my own perspective. Perhaps sharing it with reluctant or resistant staff members might help them as well.

In terms of the teaching principles, certain principles really strike a chord with me in my current library media specialist role. It is always a challenge to get some staff members to integrate technology, many times because they feel they have to focus on their course-specific content. I wish every teacher could fully understand and appreciate this principle: “Effective teaching involves prioritizing the knowledge and skills we choose to focus on.” If we could get past coverage and focus on depth, we would be better serving our student’s needs. It is so much more important for students to learn how to learn, how to gather and evaluate information, how to synthesize and create than it is to memorize facts. That would be single biggest focus for educational reform, if it were all up to me. This also connects to the second article ("Do Students Know Enough Smart Learning Strategies?"). All teachers need to see themselves as more than just teachers of their specific content areas; every teacher needs to be comfortable teaching learning strategies, reading strategies, writing strategies, and thinking strategies, as these strategies relate to their content areas. Students would be so much more well-prepared for their future lifelong learning needs with these strategies.

I also really liked principles five (“Effective teaching involves recognizing and overcoming our expert blind spots.”) and six (“Effective teaching involves adopting appropriate teaching roles to support our learning goals.”) Principle five makes me think of one of my choice of teaching career. I was an English teacher because I was passionate about writing and reading, and after having taught students that subject, I often said I might have been a better math teacher. The reason? I had a hard time (to put it mildly) when a student couldn’t pick out a verb in a sentence like “ The cat sat in the tree.” It was just too easy and obvious to me, whereas if I were a math teacher, I would be better able to understand their struggles, since math did not come as easily to me as English! In terms of principle six, I feel that I do this much better as a library media specialist than I did as a classroom teacher, and it would be a lesson I would be able to take with me back into the classroom, should that happen. I would never be able to be the kind of teacher to just stand and lecture anymore; I value other roles of teachers, like coach and collaborator, too much.