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This little image is one of the very first I did for the blog – almost 3 years back!
It’s been downloaded so many times – hey, some people have even conntacted me and asked me for “permission” to download it (yes, there are many nice guys out there…gals, too). Others have suggested that I add a word or two…we could probably add many!
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Not that you need me to tell you…but I was kinda stating the obvious when I did this – and, I was also linking it to two other questions that TEACHers ask themselves on a Monday morning…or Sunday night:
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Very different, aren’t they?
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It’s not really a toss-up…it’s a choice!
I’ve found that the TEACHers who ask the second question “do business” very differently to those that ask the first. I’ve also “confessed” (and recently re-booted the post in which I made that confession) that I used to ask the first far more than I ever asked the second.
So…how do we get from that second question to the one I have used at the title of this post?
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Well, I thunk it’s a question of what matters…or, to be more specific, what we thunk matters…and what we do to breathe life into that thunk.
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Go back to that first image, for a minute…I was suggesting that there are 11 things that are really important in allthingsLEARNing.
If you had to choose 3 of them, what would they be?
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- FUN, perhaps? It’s important, for sure…but it might not make the top 3, yes?
- What about REFLECTION? Yes, that one might be in there.
- FEEDBACK? The LEARNing lube…gotta have that in my top 3!
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Or, maybe, it’s EXAM PASSES!
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For me, top of the list would be:
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Come on! Only 18 words there…you know the ONE!
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Need another clue?
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It’s in there TWICE…
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OK…I know you have got it by now – but I just wanted to throw in this one, too
I know, I know…but I did take all that time to prepare it!
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Besides…who doesn’t love the She-Hulk? I bet Maya Angelou does…
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LEARNing has to involve change…change in the way the LEARNer thinks, feels and acts.
It’s not just about LEARNing “stuff” or it shouldn’t be. The “stuff” we are creating these days is growing at exponential rates…and if our goal, as TEACHers, is to simply TEACH this stuff, we might as well just pack up and go home – and leave it all to the tech we now have!
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This is why our questions have changed…have to change.
Just asking “What should I TEACH today”? …is a “stuff question”.
Asking “What should my students LEARN today”? is an improvement…and, asking “What should my students be able to do with what they LEARN today”? – is even better!
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However, asking:
…is a whole new ball-game.
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A ball-game that scares the crap out of many TEACHers!
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Indeed, many TEACHers I have discussed this question with tell me it’s an impossible question – especially those that work in the ELT “racket”. They tell me that primary TEACHers (even university TEACHers) have a shot at this – they are well-placed…they have enough stuff to TEACH…they can shape minds (and souls)!
A friend of mine once told me, “I’m beginning to think that all that stuff about you being a LEARNatic is true…Come on! I’m just a bloody language TEACHer…I TEACH grammar…sorry, language communication skills…I help kids with the 4 skills…and vocabulary”!
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Read that again…
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My friend is, by the way, a great TEACHer. But, he is not “great” because of his knowledge of grammar…nor because he knows how to TEACH the 4 skills (rather than just “practice” them using a silly textbook).
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…look at how he describes himself!
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I wanted to slap him upside his head when he said this! Instead…I think I made him pay the bill!
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Why do so many TEACHers put themselves down in this way?
Maybe it’s because this is what institutions have LEARNed them…I don’t know!
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My friend is a great TEACHer because he really knows how to “connect” with his students…and because the quality of his interactions with his “kids” allow him to make a real difference to the way those kids think, feel and act – and I ain’t only talking about GRAMMAR!
You see…it doesn’t really matter “what” we TEACH…what discipline we work in, yani! Afterall, none of us really “TEACHes courses”, do we?
We TEACH kids, teenagers, young adults…and even old farts like me!
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When I had this discussion with my old pal, it took a long time to convince him (what the heck…he was paying the bill)! Seth Godin had not published his latest book The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
I wish he had! Perhaps, we’d have fewer TEACHers saying the type of things my friend was saying.
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Seth’s book has also led me to add another little question to my list:
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…far more important for us as EDUcators, yes?
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Afterall, we (also) need to remember the words of Ellen Hocam:
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Wonderful BEDtime reading for every TEACHer (and their dogs):
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The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly? by Seth Godin
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allthingslearning 