JON GROOT

I believe that a teacher is more than simply a fountain of knowledge at which the learner is encouraged to fill their cup. Many individuals can share their expertise, and yet never truly be a teacher. A teacher is someone that utilizes their knowledge and expertise in order to show others how to learn. A teacher is someone that engages others in thinking and problem solving in order to build self-efficacy to apply their knowledge to novel situations, facilitating the creation of new understanding. A teacher should be a positive force that creates a trusting and respectful classroom community that encourages questions and lived experiences and fosters excitement in the practice of learning. Teaching, in and of itself, is a cyclical learning process that necessitates moments of investigation, integration, feedback, reflection, and refinement, continually looping back on itself in order to improve one’s own practice. Through this process, I have improved upon the teacher that I once was in pursuit of becoming the educator that I want to be. As a novice, I once taught with an “information dissemination” focus, staying at the bottom of Blooms Taxonomy where the environment was safe and controlled (for me). With the aid of a handful of influential mentors, feedback from my students, and a desire to be a better teacher, I was encouraged to think, really think, about what was most important for my students to learn. It was then that I realized that it wasn’t about “what” my students learned, but “how” my students learned. In other words, I wanted them to think, really think! This realization, obvious though it may seem, has been the driving force behind my teaching philosophy.