Blog post 4

Asking and answering questions is essential for learning in any field. I believe asking questions furthers your learning experience and reinforces information. In my favorite subject, History, I have asked questions and the answer to those questions usually inspired me to think about the subject in depth. My teacher often asked us our opinions and then would ask questions to move us to think more. Being a future educator, knowing how to ask effective questions will help our students to open their minds to a world bigger than them. I noticed my teachers always asked open-ended questions or our opinions.

On the Teaching Professor blog, Dr. Weimer lists three ways to ask better questions. In this post she gives us ways to prepare questions to make sure they are pertaining to the course material. She also believes that asking a question and leaving it unanswered will keep students engaged. Weimer also believes that the teacher is not the only one with good questions. You can get good questions from your students. I have seen this at all levels of education including the college level. I have a professor this semester who is teaching a class for the first time, she has asked us what we would like to focus on in class. She also takes the questions asked during class and asks them later either the next class or on the quizzes. She will also assign you to research the question and educate the class if she doesn't know the answer.

As future teachers we need to feel comfortable saying "I don't have the answer." I was always told that teachers are constantly learning. I feel that this is true not only for teachers but for every human-being. We as teachers, future and current, need to keep an open mind when asking and answering questions.