What I Didn't Know

I literally sit here and chuckle as I picture my attempt to capture the title..."What I didn't know...."  HA!  I can hardly type for laughing at myself.  Thank you, God, for the gift of laughter and the humble perspective of being put in my place quite often.

Ok, back to the original intent.  Twenty seven years of classroom experience.  Twenty seven years of tears, grumps, laughs, oh-yahs, oh nos, hugs, smiles, teacher fingers, and I am so sorry.  I often let our 1st year teachers know that it was a good thing I was in debt that first year or I literally would have quite and gone back to WalMart--they were booming in the the early 90's.  But what I didn't know is that little by little, PD by PD, conversation by conversation, book by book, attempt by attempt, step by step, I would learn.  Teaching is so much more than just standing in front of a room rattling off information expecting them to anxiously absorb each morsel.  I didn't know that teaching is more about student learning than it is about me presenting a really good (or so I thought) lesson.  

Characteristics of Effective Instruction is about putting student learning at the center rather than teacher instruction.  Effective instruction helps ensure that students are learning, processing, and assimilating the new information with old.  The aged saying, "Sage on the stage" was and is commendable for certain situations.  But, in today's elementary classrooms, the "Sage on the stage" needs not to be the teacher alone, but each and every student.