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Welcome to The Cultivated Mind's Blog.  This is a space to share ideas and resources for teaching and learning.  Please feel free to leave comments and share knowledge and information in this sphere.

The book below, The Elements of Teaching (James Banner Jr. and Harold Cannon) is apart of my personal cannon of educational literature.  It reminds us of the art of teaching- good teaching involves 

• Learning: good teachers are continual learners of content, their craft, and themselves to achieve mastery
• Authority:  students respect their teacher as an authority of the subject or knowledge; this is legitimate influence over power
• Ethics: maintaining a student-centered learning environment; this is the denial of self 
• Order: informing the student of the purpose and direction of every lesson; creating a tranquil learning environment
• Imagination: having the ability to put Self in the place of the students and themselves with greater knowledge and understanding; anticipating the needs and reactions of the students
• Compassion:  we are to suffer with the students and feel their successes and difficulties in learning
• Patience: giving students the time and space to learn; having reasonable expectations of students
• Character: show our humanity and admit our errors; we too are learners  

I read this book after I started teaching, but before I went to graduate school.  The benefit of this order is that I was able to learn from experience first, and shape my experience with basic teaching principles before I learned of technique and science.  I recommend this text to teachers (new and seasoned), administrators, school board officials, parents, and any other educational stakeholders.  Even high school and college students would benefit from this read.     


The Elements of Teaching on Amazon.com

"...teachers are trustees of their students' welfare...they must know what their acts exemplify, what quality of life they themselves embody, as the convey knowledge to others."