Teacher as learner

From my experience, it is very important, sometimes more important than the "expert" mantle, in creating the best learning environment for students. A teacher who is an active learner can model the way to ask illuminating questions, methods for discovering whether information found is reliable and authoritative, and the sense of excited curiosity about something previously unknown. Better than having someone who becomes a fount of facts and truisms, students who have a teacher-learner have someone who can be a partner in questioning, discovering, and wondering, a persistent explorer in spite of barriers and lack of immediate answers. Curiosity and wonder are qualities that most children possess when they begin school, and those that many children gradually lose as they progress. To be a successful learner is to be a successful thinker. This is the best thing we teachers can model for any of our students.