Monday, December 5, 2011

Teaching Tip for December 5, 2011

As we begin to reflect at the end of a semester and think about what we will do differently when we are again with students, it may be helpful to read these two quotes from the book The Courage to Teach by Parker J. Palmer.
Reduce teaching to intellect and it becomes a cold abstraction; reduce it to emotions and it becomes narcissistic; reduce it to the spiritual and it loses its anchor to the world. Intellect, emotion, and spirit depend on each other for wholeness. They are interwoven in the human self and in education at its best. – p. 4
[Here is] a simple premise: good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher. – p. 10