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1)On learning. For 23 years I’ve taught a lot. That I know. But whether that meant my kids learned a lot...I don’t know that. Well, at least not with the certainty I’d like. If I teach, does that mean they learn? I’m not so sure. Recently, on a date with my wife, the art teacher 
2)I found myself at the pottery wheel. The goal: learn to throw a piece of pottery. I had patient, expert instruction. The instructor, not my wife, modeled for us in a step-by-step process, pausing to check for understanding, fielding questions, giving tips, etc. Once we
3)sat down at the wheel, there were also other instructors to give us personalized instruction and support. The “ teaching” I suspect could not have been much better. Did I learn to throw pottery? Yes, if by that, we mean I experienced throwing pottery. No, if we were to
4)judge my final product. It was terrible. I was terrible. My wife was encouraging and kind, and so were the instructors, but it was not something to take home and put on the mantle. I knew it. My wife knew it. The instructors knew it. We expected it. One does not simply become
5)proficient at pottery in one sitting, no matter the level of instruction. To learn this skill takes a lot of time and a lot of practice. A LOT. At the end of the night, I had not learned pottery. I had only begun learning. And this gives me pause. When does learning become
6)”learned”? How many times have I mistaken my teaching for learning? How many times did I get kids started on learning and then tested them as if they had “learned”? What implications did that have on their learner mindsets then? Later? As with most things, I have more questions
7)than answers. But in my journey to find answers, I find myself more grounded in my kids’ learning than in my teaching. This was not always so. But now, I pay greater attention to the experience, to the exchange as I give feedback and opportunities, all of us just learning,
8)in different ways, at different paces. Makes me believe that teaching is not taught, that learning is never learned. It’s all maybe just a mutually responsive endeavor, a give and take until time runs out and we part—I teaching, they learning. It goes on and on. This I believe.
