I love what you mentioned about selflessness and giving more than you expect to get out. We are investing in our students and in our classrooms, and it has to be like that if you expect any real results in return. The question becomes how patient are we as investors, and how do we really expect to get paid back? In most cases the return will not be a financial one. To succeed as educators, we have to make sure to keep the broccoli out of our attitudes as well. We have to want to show up every day and reinvest in our students educations because it is something we love to do and it gives us a sense of true fulfillment. We have to work outside of the institution and use our passion as our currency.

Agree with you! The reason why that university is great for nearly everyone is the diversity. So to make that much voices be harmony is important for everyone who gets involved to the community.

Love this video!

I agree with all these thoughts and would like to add another layer to the cake, so to speak. The underlying assumption here is that everyone at the table ( or in the classroom ) has to eat the same meal (get the same exact lesson). The individualization of modern education on a student by student basis allows us to approach each student and their learning needs/interests creatively. Sure most of the ingredients for each lesson will be the same. But the best teachers ( and the ones most tuned in to the real preferences of their students) will know how to leave a little of this ingredient out for one student and add a little bit of that for another student. It takes time and attention to get to this point, but the facility to actively adapt the recipe, even on the fly in the middle of the class, is ultimately going to be what really inspires our students and makes us great educators.

This is amazing, especially “The heart is the hidden engine of the mind. If students can be educated to recognize their heart, we give them ways to amplify their power.” There is a ritual in Kabbalah that you always tie your right shoe before your left, put your right glove on before the left, etc. etc. It is because the right side symbolizes Love and the left side symbolizes Power. The purest and most powerful power is always rooted in love. I agree that we have to bring passion to the forefront of the student experience, let them dictate their own directions based on their interests and instill a love of learning that stays with them for the rest of their lives!

I wonder how a lot of the strategies and activities that we learned in this class will fare as distance learning becomes more poplar. I’ve had classmates who “sat in” during class via skype, and I’ve been in hybrid classes where more than half of the students were not in the room. Discussion was still possible, but the instructor had to do a lot more moderating than in classes where everyone was in the room, and we didn’t do group work.

I’m also a fan of this analogy. I liken this to recipes. You stick to what you know at first but then as time goes on and you start to gain confidence, you begin to tweak things. Sometimes these additions work without fault and you wonder what took so long to add them. Other times, it’s a spectacular disaster and you learn from your mistakes. I’m very much from the mind set of improvement through trial and error, and feel that if you’re not out there trying out new things because you’re afraid of failure, you’ll never truly improve yourself. Things extends to the classroom and beyond.

The differences between Western and Asian teaching styles are totally true. I think part of the reason is that the evaluation systems are focused on different aspects. Like some western people like Chinese food very much, maybe there will be some interesting happen when some teacher apply the Chinese teaching style here. I might try that if I have the opportunity haha ?

Disclaimer, haven’t read Palmer, yet I agree with the points you bring up, as well as the follow up comments. So, in a typical classroom environment the teacher is often the “authority” who in theory has the power to decide what is correct and what is not (behavior, content to cover, classroom rules, etc)… so the education reform definitely has to start with us, moving away from the authoritarian role in the classroom to a facilitator, but this shift is responsibility of students as well, only if both parties move from the assign roles, the change can start to happen.

So we need to be ready to work with students, and be prepared for them not being comfortable, if that is the case with a new approach, and keep digging until whatever objectives you had are met. Eventually I think society will benefit from that change.

Interesting. As you mention ‘motivations and energy sources that drive’ what we do is truly the source from which our passions stem. I think a great starting point for us to remain curious as we grow is to be consciously aware that these motivations, energy sources etc. do actually exist before we are in search for what these mean/are to us as individuals on more personal levels.