After watching the videos on brain architecture, plasticity, and understanding the impact of the environment on a child, how does this information impact you as a teacher?
As a teacher, I assume a highly influential role in a child's development. It is the responsibility of a teacher to cultivate potential through appropriate / effective instruction. Part of effectively accomplishing that goal is understanding the role of a teacher in the greater scheme of education: each teacher can be seen as establishing an individual building block in a child's brain function. Each block needs to be placed with precision, thereby allowing the precise placement of additional learning / experience blocks, etc.
Philip...you know, as I read your words, I couldn't help but think of the fact that we do such a better job of supporting our students' learning and increasing their learning potential when we collaborate together as teachers. In high school, this has to be between varied departments and not just teachers within the same department collaborating with one another. It was your noting of "the role of a teacher in the greater scheme of education" that made me realize that the more we collaborate on even a single lesson, single unit of study, the better will be that lesson, unit because we are going to create a thematic approach to a given subject. Going at it from multiple angles...or, creating more building blocks.
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