One of my mottos for day-to-day life, and more specifically as an educator is, “Together we grow as we go”.  I found that the readings, talks, and discussions that followed, provided me with some new ingredients to add to my recipe of, it takes a village.  Some of them appear to blend very well and have the likelihood of adding tremendous flavor to the student-professor experience.  My reflection is a collection of comments and questions that will resonate beyond our time together this summer.  Thank you kindly for this opportunity.

Balancing Acts (a significant subset of our discussion) These acts fall into many interlocking categories of our pedagogical practices and styles.  

How do we allow for student autonomy and the completion of the syllabus to coexist?  This delicate act is something that all of us experience and motivates us to try new things regularly.  However, there is a nontrivial subset of professors who are not participating in such fruitful institutes as this and may not find it important to provide these experiences of belonging and social skills.  We have to also provide strategies in our delivery that prepare for such experiences. 

Expectations (a second subset our discussions)

What are they?  Where do they come from?  How are they communicated?  Do they make sense?  Are they reasonable?

What should I do?  How do I do it?  How much effort and time will it take to accomplish my goal for the class, individual students and the course overall? 

Every class has its own personality and character, as with each and every person.  Therefore, any approach to achieving belonging and social skills (best experiences for student learning and development) requires an understanding and respect for a multidimensional approach. These approaches are multifaceted in nature and include a large amount of improvisation and innovation.  This is why I believe and think that a course in acting and/or stage performance should be a requirement or option for schools of education and teacher preparation. 

Decisions are made in an instant and many times we “see” what we have decided, after the fact.  At times we can make a series of conscious decisions in real-time and feel like it was well informed.    

Together we grow as we go . ~dp

multiversity project