Respond to: You want to be a what?
“Effective educators at all grade levels possess something more significant than content knowledge: a deep understanding of their students.”
“Knowing your students” is what I have heard most frequently from the day I stepped into the realm of education. I hear it from professors, from principals, as well as from colleagues. What does the notion truly entail? How deep the understanding should be? Is there any specific way to guide me to understand a student? Wouldn’t it be too overwhelming or impossible to understand all your students? All these questions puzzle me on the road of becoming an experienced educator. Taking this course helps me further realize the importance of knowing your students, and also inform me the dimensions a student should be known. Just as the article mentions that certain developmental traits of students should be understood, otherwise you would never ever become a successful teacher. The development traits should include physical aspect, cognitive aspect, emotional aspect, and identity aspect. Analyzing my focal learner also offers me a precious opportunity to see a student comprehensively, which I have never experienced before. And it effectively alarms me how much effort, time and knowledge an educator has to put in to make “knowing your student” a meaningful and constructive teaching technique.