First of all, I am proud of things that have not changed in my teaching. After 35 years working with PreK-16 students, I recently discovered a journal that I wrote during my first year of teaching. In it I recorded the basics used in work with my group of kindergarteners. Those basics included strategies that would later be promoted as Reading Recovery, hands-on mathematics, and community-building initiatives. Re-reading the journal made me feel that those of us who are “born to be teachers” have a natural instinct for good teaching and learning practices. Secondly, I must admit that much has changed in my teaching, as well it should if one is a reflective practitioner. The greatest area of change is in assessment. Today, because so much of formalized testing is not authentic and real-world focused, what I create must be.
Belinda L. Eggen, University of South Carolina, Columbia
35 years teaching