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Awhile back I took a class (SFL210) which talked about the different educational philosophers and why they thought what they did. We took about a month to cover them. At the time I found it all interesting but not really applicable in my teaching. I thought that we were probably learning about them because people who teach education need to know the history behind education and people who have thought a lot about it. Last Thursday we started talking about the philosophers and I found myself wondering the same thing, namely how would knowing about the different philosophers change anything for me. It was like this: I understand that gravity works, but I don't need to know about Galileo to know that it works.

I started thinking about this during class when we revisited the subject again on Tuesday, which said to me that this is obviously important. I thought about how I tend to be an analytical person some times and I pictured myself thinking about my students and trying to analyze trends in them, and draw--from those trends--ways to better teach my students. When I pictured that image in my head, I saw the value in finding someone who had already done it for me. I realized that if I take the time to re-visit these different philosophers and their theories throughout the years it might help me revise my lesson plans and reach more students. When I realized how I could use that knowledge to my advantage I felt like my time was being used much more effectively.

One thing I particularly enjoyed was going over Bloom's taxonomy, being able to think about what that meant in terms of the word "Father." I really like when things in class help me understand something about the gospel that was on my mind recently