Docere Est Discere

As indicated on my About page, I attend a small Midwestern liberal arts university. After I had the idea to start this teaching-related blog, it occurred to me that it would be something useful for education teachers to consider using. Since the education program I am in has a relatively new block program (see here) that I went through in the fall semester, I decided to direct my suggestion to the professors in charge of that program, one of whom has already commented (thanks, Dr. Hoffman). Even though I have already sent some of my suggestions to the three professors indicated, I wanted to flesh out more of my proposal of how blogs could be used quite effectively in a program such as the junior block.

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Welcome to my new writing space.

I started this blog because I felt that my previous blog, The Christian Cynic, was more a forum for writings about philosophy, logic, rhetoric in culture, and theology/religion. When I wanted to write purely about language, education, or my teaching experiences, it felt like I was writing two blogs – a philosophy blog and a teaching blog – in the same space.

So here I am. I will continue to write TCC (as much as I can, since it takes me much longer to think out entries for it), but this blog will give me a place to discuss issues of linguistics, particularly my great interest of etymology but also grammar, mechanics, usage, and other matters as I see fit. That’s the English side of the blog; the other topics will be education related, whether it be my own reactions to teaching methods, the explication of my own philosophy of teaching, or issues that have to do with education at large. I might also throw out some ideas that I have for my future teaching, as a repository of possible information for when I begin teaching as a full vocation (which will begin in January 2009, if all goes as planned).

I welcome students, teachers, and anyone else* to add comments to anything I write here. The motto isn’t just there for the Latin flair (although I enjoy Latin immensely) – I really do mean it. To teach is to learn. Or, to rephrase, who would be a teacher must first and foremost be a student. This has multiple meanings: a teacher must constantly learn the content what he or she teaches, how to improve his or her teachings, and especially how best to facilitate learning in his or her students. This – and I cannot stress it enough – involves learning about each student as an individual.

I hope you’ll join me in this exercise of learning.