Reflection #3

I have learned so much this week concerning teaching and how it is a two way process.  It is not enough to just stand in front of the classroom and lecture or even present.  Instead, we need to interactive with the students-- ask them questions, make sure they are understanding the material, ask for feedback, have them teach it back to you or to a peer.  I learned from Gong's book, Learning and Teaching for Exponential Growth, that in order for someone to learn we need to be teachers as well.  The power of  the number 3 was greatly emphasized in the first chapter, starting with the penny game.  He talked a lot about the three-person model and how if someone does something 3 times then that is when you understand it the best. Any model without all three components will be incomplete, which are the attributes of roles, knowledge, and experience.  The experiences which need to happen are to capture (between student and teacher), expand (the student independently), teach (between the student and others), and finally to evaluate (a process that underlies the whole series).  Nothing ever becomes real until it is experienced.

I loved when we talked about our exponential growth.  When we reach that point when all we want to do is gain more knowledge and be more like God, then that is when we reach exponential growth, instead of having linear growth and not progressing.  I liked the metaphor of a person growing by pushing outward on his own boundaries.  As the circumference of the circle grows, it increases exponentially.  I learned from this that I will and must reach that point in my life because that is when everything in our life comes together and it makes sense.  We came here to this earth to gain as much knowledge as we can and this is what I want to do.  I want to be passionate about what I teach and always be willing to learn new things.