Day 29: It's all history.

How have you changed as an educator since you first started?

 
In the beginning there was...

- the textbook
- the blackboard
- the tape recorder
- the written test
- the lecture

      I even remember classes where there were no textbooks and I was the only language source available. Then I got swallowed up by the vortex of change and as my work environment developed, so did I. 
I have become much more student-centered, I see myself often more as a facilitator than a teacher. Access to target level material is everywhere and students have so much more opportunities to be creative, to practice and to share what they know with the world.
     Being an educator now is much more exciting, but also much more difficult. One of the most important things I have had to accept is that there are a lot of things I don't have the answer to. When I don't know I just tell the students we'll look for it together, because somewhere out there someone has the answer.
     It also has become much more fun. There are so many new materials to discover. Students drive the curriculum sometimes more than I do. All in all it has made me a much better educator.

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