I love the list in this photo. The kindergarten teacher who asked her class what they wanted to learn about got a list of fantastic answers. I’m sure being asked that question so early in their formal educational process is something that will stick with them.
There are things that stick with me, too, as I think about my own education --- both as a student and as a teacher. Like many of us, I could give a list of teachers who inspired me. What’s come to mind more recently, though (probably because a related issue came up at a meeting I recently attended), is something my colleague Ryan Cordell wrote on his site nearly four years ago: tht citation is about participating in an ongoing conversation and inviting others to join in. Plagiarism is a problem, yes, but it isn’t --- or at least, it shouldn’t be --- the primary reason we cite. In keeping with his own point, he notes that he got the idea from Blackwell and Martin’s “Technology, Collaboration, and Undergraduate Research.”
I’ll freely admit that I still haven’t figured out the perfect way to convince students, but I’ve been trying to take this approach to teaching they why of citation ever since I first read Ryan’s post.
No doubt there are small but important things that have stuck with you, too. So: What ideas --- big or small --- about teaching have stuck with you, and why? Let us know in the comments!
Creative Commons licensed photo by Flickr user “Eden, Janine and Jim”