I'm disappointed that so many days have passed between my last posting. There certainly hasn't been a lack of thinking on this end, just carving out the time to write. Today I'd like to consider the role of teacher in instruction. It always boggles my mind when teaching is perceived as a spectator sport. The stance of teacher as one of observer and disseminator, rather than seeker and transformer. I realize this sounds a bit trite but, in a way, we should probably think about where we stand when it comes to teaching- literally and figuratively, every now and then.

I often describe good teaching as being the ability to target instruction that keeps the learning as close to home as possible. This means a number of things. One, that learning is a private endeavor, where the mechanisms supporting learning are completely child-dependent. Two, that learning requires relevance. Good teaching capitalizes on cognition, which means that instruction should require students to consider and call in what is cognitively accessible, whether they be experiences, skills, or interests. How well the teacher respects these realities helps qualify the outcome potential of the learning experience.

Experienced teachers must be able to identify the prerequististe skills required for successful, academic participation but must also be able to determine whether or not a child has such skills to begin with. This is a two-fold act: identifying skills inherent in the learning task and measuring a child's skills inherent in the learning behavior. Teachers are often very good at designing instruction, less skilled at making sure that the children are ready for instruction.

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