Learning Influences, Part 1

I have been reading Cathy Toll's LEARNERSHIP:  INVEST IN TEACHERS, FOCUS ON LEARNING, AND KEEP TEST SCORES IN PERSPECTIVE.

Simultaneously, I am reading John Maxwell's 21 IRREFUTABLE LAWS OF LEADERSHIP:  FOLLOW THEM AND PEOPLE WILL FOLLOW YOU.

Both authors have a focus on influence.  I'm thinking about how we influence learning in our students, our peers, and our leaders.

Cathy Toll (p. 75) poses the following.

 "I'd like to ask you, the reader, to draw on your learning experiences.  Please grab a piece of paper and jot down 10 things you know now that you didn't know when you began your career as an educator.  This is not a top-ten list, so don't try to come up with the 10 most important things you have learned.  Rather, jot down the first ten things you think of."


Okay, Cathy, here is my list of what I didn't know back then (only 10 items, eh):

1. I will never be a "master teacher."  No one can master anything so complex.
2. Teaching will always be challenging.  I will never be able to open a file or Teacher's Edition of a text and feel like my plans are ready to go.
3. I will love my students and colleagues almost as much as family; I will certainly spend more time with them.
4. I didn't dream that there would be pundits who would seek to blame teachers for virtually every ill of the world and then pay testing companies to prove themselves "correct..." and that the public would be so easily fooled.
5. The digital age was right around the corner.
6. I am responsible for my own professional growth.
7. I didn't know how to spiral curriculum or evidence learning/growth in authentic ways.
8. I didn't know how to teach reading workshop or writing workshops.
9. I needed to initiate change and cultivate it with my peers.
10. I didn't have a deep understanding of how to analyze students' work in order understand learners' needs.

 What do you know now that you didn't know "then?"