meddle, me?? ;-)

Well I've been uncharacteristically quite lately, but this doesn't mean that I've not been doing anything worthy of a blog post.  While I have taken a break I've still been thinking, pondering and reading.  Earlier this week I had a discussion with a friend over the uses of reading schemes in the middle stages of a primary school and it reminded me of an article I read recently by Erica McWilliam titled 'Unlearning How to Teach'.  The title alone intrigued me as I like the idea of doing things a little differently and as McWilliam writes

"Put simply, we will need to see a further shift from sage-on-the-stage and guide-on-the-side to meddler-in-the-middle (2005)"


There will always be teachers who are traditional in their methods and this is good; children need diversity in their learning and if we all teach the same way they will lose out.  I know that the teacher that I want to be is the meddler.  I want to challenge my pupils to reach an understanding then question it further.  I want to be the devil's advocate with 'what ifs' and I want to work with my pupils to encourage them to take control of their own learning journey.  But then, isn't this what every teacher wants for their their pupils?