Stories of teaching and learning, a memoir

• Main Author: Heimbecker, Elizabeth Helen
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1993/2594

I am going to tell you a story in this document. It is my story. Some of these stories are about my experiences as a learner while others are from my perspective as teacher. Both are really stories about learning because I am a learner in my own classroom. I'm often learning different things from my students but I am learning with them and from them. In this way, I understand teaching and learning as opposite sides of the same coin: only the perspective is different. Most of what I know about teaching I either know through reflection on myself as a learner or from placing myself in the shoes of the learners in my classroom and attempting to understand their perspectives. This story spans many years. In many instances I understand the events differently as years of lived experience and numerous discussions have informed how I make sense. I believe, however, hat it would be a narrow and self-indulgent focus if these stories were only about me. They are also about you in the sense that these stories may provide a window through which you can see aspects of your own experience and self. To this end, I hope that this document is both a window and a contribution to the ongoing conversation around education.