3 Things I Wish Educators Knew About their Own Learning
by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano
Cross posted to the Langwitches Blog
I meet many educators around the world, virtually and in person… Many times, I am still amazed at the resistance to new ideas, change and willingness to apply the learning they expect of students to their own learning.
Here are the 3 things, above all, that I wish educators knew about their own learning.
- The understanding that we don’t know, what we don’t know!
- How can we be resistant to pedagogy, tools and strategies that we have never experienced for learning ourselves?
- How can we try out new forms of teaching and learning, if we are not even aware they exist and play a vital role in the lives around us?
- How can we be dismissive of the potential outcomes in learning, if we don’t walk the walk?
- The understanding that it is about life long learning.
- Being an educator means being in the business of learning!
- Having completed a formal degree or having received a certification, does not mean the world around us is at a stand still and our knowledge will continue to serve us in the present and future.
- It is possible and even likely that an educator could be classified as “illiterate” for the 21st century, if they were to stop learning and feel satisfied with their 20the century education.
- The understanding that there exists a moral imperative of sharing as an educator.
- Learning is amplified when shared
- Sharing of your reflections, thoughts, ideas, best practices, feedback and resources is part of the mechanism of social learning
- If no one were to step up to share, social media, crowdsourcing or personal learning networks (PLNs) would not exist.
