Know Thy self
I believe that above all things, if you want to develop as an instructor you have to identify what you can and cannot do. We all have strengths and weaknesses and by knowing what they are and working within our boundaries and working to increase our comfort levels we become better instructors.
Admitting our weaknesses seems to be the hardest of all the personal development needs we have. Once we swollow our pride and own up to our weaknesses I beleive we will ultimately find that we were not alone and enable others to better themselves as well.
Thanks Jamie! Excellent point, and as discussed before, being human to our adult learners is a platform for mutual respect.
Jay Hollowell
MaxKnowledge Facilitator
This was probably one of the hardest things for me to do. Then I realized I had knowledge my students wanted and if I didn't know something I would research it and find the answer for them, which ended in both of us learning something new.
Hi Joshua,
Great perspective on professional growth. You do have this experience base that will benefit your students. You have a good attitude about how you can help your students while learning something new.
Keep up the good work.
Gary
In the book the “Art of War” Sun Tzu states know yourself and do not know your enemy and you will be successful fifty percent of the time. Know your enemy and do not know yourself and you will be successful fifty percent of the time. But know yourself and know your enemy and you will be successful one hundred percent of the time. While the class room is not a battlefield (even if it feels that way at times) The more you know about your students their goals, their challenges what they want to get out of your class the more successful you will be in teaching them. But that is only half of what you need to be a complete successes. Knowing yourself is the other half, what's your learning style, how do you like to learn, what motivates you in the classroom and what instructors do you want to be like. The more you understand how you see yourself in the classroom the more of an effective instructor you will be.
I agree that knowing thyself is a great way to improve upon our teaching - that way we can improve on the stuff that we aren't as proficient at. In addition to this, I think it is important to get outside opinions on how we view ourselves because oftentimes an outside opinion (student feedback, teaching observation, etc.) opens our eyes to something that we didn't realize about ourselves.
