The Teacher as Learner at Wooster School
Teaching is a human experience. It has been said that "you teach what you are." Here at Wooster, teachers are examples of how learning works. We inquire, explore, examine, process, consider, and we reflect. We nurture the skills, dispositions, and knowledge of our teachers as much as we do from our students. We are committed to preparing teachers to emphasize and encourage risk-taking, intellectual curiosity, and reflection.
The provision and receipt of feedback is essential to this work. Our teachers strive to provide numerous opportunities for both formal and informal feedback around thinking dispositions and knowledge. Through administrator feedback, peer feedback, and self-feedback (reflection), teachers at Wooster learn about both the art and science of teaching. We are committed to the belief that feedback is one of the most powerful ways a culture teaches and expresses its values. Our school culture is one which highly values the role of one’s impact - both teachers and students - in the development of a learning story.
So, what does it mean to be a teacher learner at Wooster School? Here, teachers engage with one another and with our students to make visible, document, personalize, and share their practice with purposes of professional learning and research. As reflective practitioners, we aim to gather rich insights into how and why learners learn. Our intentionality of design, visibility of learning, and personalization - for our teachers and students - is based upon what is seen and documented.