Assignments and Action Steps

Pedagogical journal exercise: 

From your experiences as a student, can you recall teachers or professors who shaped and molded how you thought, rather than just teaching you what to think? (Educators who were “old birds helping young birds to fly?”) What qualities or methods made these individuals excellent teachers? Conversely, did you have any bad experiences with educators? Did their teaching methods contribute to the experience?

After answering these questions, take some time to consider how your experiences can shed light on how you teach. What are some ways you can help your students, or “young birds,” to fly, rather than acting as a “poultry keeper” who keeps his or her birds in line?