Comments on: dy/teaching

By: New Kids on the Block « My Teaching Journey

New Kids on the Block « My Teaching Journey — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:52:56 +0000

[…] Meyer’s idea that teaching is made up ofÂ slices,Â Important Ratio #1, and Important Ratio […]

By: Despairing vs. Working: Learning Classroom Management and Learning Math « Research in Practice

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 06:52:46 +0000

[…] Here’s a 3-year-old post from Dan Meyer drawing an analogy between the process of subdividing our job into small, concrete bits that can be […]

By: dy/dan » Blog Archive » Did You Know Bullet Ants?

dy/dan » Blog Archive » Did You Know Bullet Ants? — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:54:48 +0000

[…] line: it is your professional obligation to pursue the best examples of every slice of your field. If, at the point you discover truly great technique, you shrug and say, “There isn’t […]

By: dy/dan » Blog Archive » Oblivion

dy/dan » Blog Archive » Oblivion — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:16:47 +0000

[…] have been convicted for some time that, to be a good teacher, you need not have experienced a bright light on the road, a deep voice […]

By: dy/dan » Blog Archive » Design for Educators: Intro (?)

dy/dan » Blog Archive » Design for Educators: Intro (?) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 23:37:51 +0000

[…] with every slice of teaching, improvement is a three-step […]

By: Teaching Generation Z » Blog Archive » Around The Traps

Teaching Generation Z » Blog Archive » Around The Traps — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 12:41:15 +0000

[…] Dan Meyer continues to be a blogger who refuses to conform to any pre-conceptions I might have about young, mathematics teachers – his work is awesome and I can’t remember being so reflective at that age (I was pretty immature but) and one of his latest posts confirms that. Read this. I’ve always been very dubious about this idea of teaching being a “calling” – I think Dan hits it on the head when he says “I just can’t get into this idea that some people are “called” to teaching when I am struck in the face every day, every class period, by the obvious slices of our job.” He peels off 17 off-the-cuff examples and could’ve added more. It makes sense. I’m a teacher and I’m good at teaching because so many of the things I’m good at are required in teaching – the slices. I just can’t grasp a supreme being dictating that “Graham shalt be a teacher.” […]

By: dan

dan — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 01:05:19 +0000

Right. It's the metacognition I find so difficult to teach, especially to a population that has enough trouble with cognition. Re ed schools and my own metacognitive development: my supervisor observed us frequently and asked us probing questions about how we knew a student knew what we had taught. Then, in the second semester, probably realizing he wouldn't be around to ask the questions much longer, he started asking us to predict the question he was about to ask next. Which I didn't recognize as a deeply metacognitive game until now.

By: Miss Profe

Miss Profe — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 15:00:46 +0000

H, it seems to me that what you are talking about is teaching someone how to fish, which comes from teaching kids how to learn – metacognition. It also means teaching kids how to construct knowledge – constructivism. Of course, in order for kids to change how they learn, teachers would need to change how they teach.

And, H, thank you for rescuing the point I was trying to make :).I knew that there was something valuable in my long commentary.

By: H.

H. — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 05:22:41 +0000

I think one way of focusing my question would be to say that while I know a lot about how to learn – and to teach – facts, ideas and theories, I know much less about learning – and teaching – skills, habits and attitudes. Credentialing classes are largely words and ideas, and I give my students words and ideas, but the kinds of learning experiences that would make me a more skilled teacher, and my kids better students, have to do with knowing-how rather than knowing-that, and with feeling and deciding in certain ways. And that’s where I’m seeking further input on how to bring about the necessary changes. There have been quite a few useful suggestions so far, and I’m hoping there’ll be more about how to acquire the kinds of skills for which (d teaching)/(d skills) > 0. (‘scuse that)

By: H.

H. — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 05:04:41 +0000

What both Dan and Miss Profe seem to agree on is that a strong autodidactic streak is a great asset, maybe a necessity, in a teacher. Dan furthermore breaks down the autodidactic inclination into particular approaches to movies, speeches, and the like – in neat accordance with his overall theme of breaking down the complex into possibly replicable parts.

This reminds me that I once planned to read “An inquiry into Autodidacticism” by Joan Solomon, in order to see whether it contained any wisdom about how to teach (or design learning experiences that might prompt) students to become self-motivated and self-directed learners. (Checking the reference again I realize that the reason why I never acquired the book was probably that it is heinously expensive.) Anyway, while there seems to be something pretty paradoxical about teaching anyone autodidacticism, it seems that’s what ed schools should be trying to develop in teacher candidates, and what we should develop in ourselves, of course. And here we have some particulars about how to go about it. Please keep it coming.

I’d still be interested in a recommendation for a good text in adolescent psychology.