5 Teaching Lessons We Can Learn from Groundhog Day

5 Teaching Lessons We Can Learn from Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day has always been one of the “strange” holidays celebrated in the US, passing each year mostly unnoticed until the release of the 1993 movie by the same name. Suddenly, the day had a whole new meaning. What would you do if you kept repeating the same day over?

Since its release, Groundhog Day has been one of my favorites – I have watched it so many times, I can practically say the entire dialog along with the movie. Although it’s a comedy (possibly Bill Murray’s best), there are still many great lessons tucked away among all the laughs and one-liners.

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What We Can Learn From Sherlock Holmes About Teaching a Class

What We Can Learn From Sherlock Holmes About Teaching a Class

Historically I was never a big Sherlock Holmes fan. But with the recent movies and two TV series, my interest has grown. His methods, insights and attitudes are intriguing.

[featured-image single-newwindow=”false” id=”130924-SherlockHolmes.jpg” alt=”Historical Faces of Sherlock Holmes”]

What I have come to realize is that many of the tools Sherlock Holmes uses for solving a mystery are also wonderful tools for helping a class run smoothly.  We just need to look at them a little differently and apply them to our challenge of teaching a class effectively as opposed to solving a crime.

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Teaching Isn’t About Knowing More

Teaching Isn’t About Knowing More

One of my very favorite things to do is teach. Recently I was interviewed for a video podcast by QuiltMoxie, and toward the end she asked me about my favorite question. What I answered was I have a favorite TYPE of question: it is the question whose answer causes the “light bulb moment” to happen. In those moments, there is a special look, response, expression or comment that lets the teacher know that the answer provided went much deeper than just the surface of the question asked. And that is my favorite moment in the classroom.
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