New Insights and Their Implications

Class this past week as been very insightful. It has been really interesting to see a new perspective of teaching. Dr. Reins has been showing us the differences in reading "critically" and "literally." I thought that he stated something that is fairly obvious to the majority of us by saying "Some people are book smart, while others are life smart." When I heard this comment I immediately thought of how I look at problems and my approaches to solving them. I know that everyone learns differently, but it never really occurred to me that I am going to have to get all of my students on the same page by approaching problems from many different perspective. I won't be able to show all of them my approach to a problem and expect everyone to understand as I do. Therefore, in order to be a good teacher who benefits their students' learning, a teacher needs to approach education from many perspectives. This can give students the opportunity to figure out how they learn best.
Going back to reading "critically" and "literally," this was fairly frustrating to me. I understand the purpose of reading something and then finding the answer. I also understand the purpose of reading something and looking for the meaning or interpretation. I believe that this will be one of the most major obstacles a teacher will have to face. Students should not be discouraged from reading critically or reading literally. I am not sure how to approach this, except to respect each student's take on what they read and learn.