It’s good to remember how frustrating learning can be. It’s even better when you experience the frustration firsthand.
Posts Tagged ‘personal reflections’
Unlearning
Posted Thursday, July 1st, 2010 by Maryellen WeimerThe capacity to learn and to use what we’ve learned is one of those things that makes life worth living. When the mind delivers what we need or helps us understand something new, we take it for granted, unable to imagine its absence. Like so much else in life, learning is a gift to be used and enjoyed. But it is also one of those gifts that sometimes wears out.
Holiday Best Wishes
Posted Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 by Maryellen WeimerHere are my best wishes for your holiday season. May there be peace, joy, giving, and thankfulness as you celebrate with family and friends.
We’re having a quiet, white Christmas at our farm in Pennsylvania. I’m giving the birds extra seed and the neighbors the Christmas cookies my Mom used to make.
Thanks for reading this blog. [...]
Oh Those Students. . .
Posted Thursday, December 17th, 2009 by Maryellen WeimerEven with the holidays upon us, it’s hard not to think about those students who did poorly in our courses this semester.
Some of them just didn’t make the effort. They tend to be the ones who don’t really know why they’re in college or what they want to do with their lives. At this moment, it’s the social life — meeting new people, the parties, games, and the myriad of “fun” things college kids can find to do.
‘A Teaching Life’
Posted Friday, December 4th, 2009 by Maryellen WeimerOn a fairly regular basis, I reread what may well be my all time favorite essay on teaching—Christa L. Walck’s “A Teaching Life.” Walck’s essay draws heavily from one of my favorite books, Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life, in which Dillard describes how writing creates her life. Walck wonders if teaching does the same for [...]
Thankful for Pedagogical Colleagues
Posted Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 by Maryellen WeimerIt’s the week for being thankful, and I’m thinking gratefully about my pedagogical colleagues—those faculty friends and compatriots with whom I can talk teaching.
I have colleagues who indulged my need to blow off steam—some student behavior is nothing short of outrageous; some department policies are nothing short of senseless; some department heads nothing other than [...]
A Long Life of Learning
Posted Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 by Maryellen WeimerMy much-loved Aunt Barbara died last week, 10 days past her 100th birthday. It was time—her mind had left her several years ago.
Barbara loved learning and that love filled her final decades with richness and reward. She matched her broad and eclectic interests with a fierce commitment to mastering new ideas and skills. At 94, when she could barely operate her TV remote and was just about to move into assisted living, she begged me to help her pick out a computer.
Writing to Learn
Posted Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 by Maryellen WeimerFor me writing is like a crowbar, it helps me pry apart ideas, chip away at what they mean, get them out in the open where I can see what they’re made of. Writing is the best way I know to become one of those reflective practitioners.
College for the First Time
Posted Thursday, August 27th, 2009 by Maryellen WeimerOn the road again this week, I was listening to a talk show in which callers were invited to talk about taking their kids to college for the first time. Having never done this myself, it does sound like an emotional letting-go moment. But what impressed me even more were the high expectations these parents have for college experiences. Yes, most of them did mention hopes that their child would fit in, find friends, and have as one mom described it, “a wholesome social life.” Also true, most of them did mention career goals—the hope that college will prepare students for professions that pay well and for professions where there will be jobs. What I didn’t expect to hear were the more lofty goals.
Knitting Teacher
Posted Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 by Maryellen WeimerEvery teacher aspires for her students to learn and perform well. And in theory every teacher endorses the idea that some students will excel, might come to know as much as the teacher, maybe, after years of dedicated work, even know more than the teacher. But when a student leapfrogs right over the teacher, acquiring the skills and knowledge with such speed and ease, it does test one’s commitment to that theory.