Thoughts about your thoughts

Just followed your two recent blogs and I must say that it feels really good to hear you speaking what you would do and how you would cope in different situations. I urge you to keep thinking as though you were a student, and the question would be: With foresight...and knowing what you know today, would you want to be taught in that way? It is good practice to do this same exercise when you are teaching - it's what is termed as being auto-critical. It's always good to see the positive, the negative and the risks...it's important to balance these out when you criticize yourself AND others.
Recently I was reading David Warlick's blog and I came across a citation from Seth Godin, which said "If you want to drive yourself crazy, read the live twitter comments of an audience after you give a talk, even if it’s just to ten people. You didn’t say what they said you said. You didn’t mean what they said you meant." - Basically what this is saying is that people (across every culture, irrespective of gender and age) will always interpret what you are trying to say in the context which appeals to their sense of belonging... you have to think in terms of how the people sitting in front of you in class, are thinking... otherwise there is no way that you will be understood as you plan to be.
Regarding practicality, and logistics in the classroom, my simple advice is 'think of the people in front of you as human beings and not as learning subjects...' They are not just your paycheck at the end of the month. You are the teacher - being a teacher means being passionate about your job, and compassionate with people. Nurture those ideals.
v.