What is your metaphor for teaching and learning?
After exploring the linked resources for this module what stood out to me was “teachers as gardeners.” What stood out to me the most was the following quote: “Their goal is to cultivate the mind by nourishing, enhancing the climate, removing the weeds, and other impediments, and then standing back and allowing growth to occur.” (Exploring Your Teaching Philosophy: Sample Exercises. Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo).
During the COVID-19 lockdown I invested in coaching programs to start my own business (Ayaan’s Crafty Creation Ltd.). One of my business coaches always taught us to be like a gardener, water the seeds that have been planted for us. What she meant by this is that the lessons she taught us in her program are the seeds she planted for us. It was then our responsibility to water those seeds and watch them grow (watch our business grow). My business coach planted so many seeds for us, whether through her zoom meetings, or digital handouts etc. With the seeds she planted, it was up to us to water them and watch our success grow. She taught us to always be a gardener in our business.
If at first you do not succeed, keep watering those seeds, eventually you will get the rewards you are looking for. Being on the end of the spectrum (I am now the professor/coach), I want to take similar approaches my business coach took with me. Being an educator, that is what one is doing. As educators we plant the seeds for our students, and stand back and allow their growth to occur.
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