MI Learning

Every day I get to be with amazing, talented people who are focused on helping others discover and develop their talents. Teachers! They believe in, inspire, motivate and support learners by learning alongside them and celebrating the joys and challenges of the learning process. They cheer about mistakes because they know that they're prime opportunities for growth. They are always hopeful because they believe that the best rewards come from the challenges that one endures and overcomes. Teachers know that the work is never done and never easy because their work is life. Life is messy and complex and painful and joyful and beautiful. It's an adventure. Just like learning. Learning is life. Modeling how to think and act like learners affords teachers the opportunity to live in a state of perpetual, childlike wonder. They can play around with and think about ideas in myriad ways because their students bring unique perspectives that influence, motivate, and inspire them. Te...

Helen Keller with her teacher, Anne Sullivan As I reflect on what it means to think and act like a listener, I continue to think about Helen Keller. She could not see or hear; yet, she was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. She was also an author, activist, and lecturer. To be and do the things she had been and done, Helen had to be a listener; yet, she couldn't hear. Curious isn't it? And what about her teacher? Anne Sullivan. I read that Anne started teaching Helen with a prescribed list of words that she wanted Helen to know. Ms. Sullivan discovered that it wasn't working. Anne then shifted to naming the objects that Helen was curious about by spelling the words out in her palm. Ms. Sullivan focused on the needs of her student, what the learner was curious about, and made her teaching about the learning of the learner. Anne noticed. And, Helen became an unstoppable learner. So what? So, is listening really more about noticing and se...