• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About
  • Causeries

Thomas S. Bremer

Writer - Historian - Teacher

  • Sacred Wonderland
  • Contact

Moving students toward new horizons

October 10, 2018 by Thomas S. Bremer Leave a Comment

ECS Math classroom
ECS Math classroom (Photo by Norton Gusky, courtesy his Flickr photostream: https://www.flickr.com/photos/85522138@N00/15814949592)

My father taught high school for more than thirty years. I don’t know if he was a great teacher, although I came across a letter from a former student of his who thanked him for changing the student’s life. He probably was not a bad teacher.

Long before I became a teacher, before I even imagined wanting to teach, my father shared a piece of wisdom that has been valuable in my own teaching but also an important life lesson. “You have to meet students where they’re at,” he told me, “and try to move them from there.” Decades before a student-centered learning model had become a best practice among the most capable teachers, my father oriented himself to the needs of students and focused on their learning.

I have sometimes struggled to live up to this wisdom. Finding out where students are at can be hard work, and engaging them in ways that moves them toward new horizons can be a frustrating challenge. But this insight offers a worthy perspective for me to aspire to. It keeps me moving from where I’m at toward something better for all of us.

[Daily post 078 of 260 in my year-long challenge.] ♨

Filed Under: Teaching Tagged With: advice, student learning

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Thank you for visiting

I write about religion and tourism, especially in regard to national parks. I am currently working on a history of religion in Yellowstone National Park. Read More…

Visit the Causeries page for my most recent posts, and sign up here to get new posts and updates:





You might also enjoy reading:

  • History (37)
  • Places (53)
  • Poetry (9)
  • Random (36)
  • Reviews (15)
  • Sacred Wonderland (26)
  • Teaching (18)
  • Writing (25)

Search this site

Index of topics

#AmWriting Acadia America American west art birds churches climate change colonialism consumerism creativity education Elvis Presley geysers Graceland history Lincoln Matsuo Bashō meditation memoir Memphis Moon National Parks National Park Service Native Americans nature Ohio pilgrimage religion religious tourism rivers sacred places sacred space San Antonio San Antonio Missions spirituality Springfield student learning teaching Texas tourism Travel trees Wyoming Yellowstone
  • Email
  • RSS
  • Twitter
All content on this site created by Thomas S. Bremer unless otherwise noted.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

View the privacy policy for this site by clicking here.

Learn - Grow - Share

♨

Copyright © 2019 · Twenty Seven Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in