dignum memoria - always a work in progress 

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I finished my first year as a teacher at Fanshawe College and was proud and relieved.  Proud because I felt I was successful in my new vocation within the confines of what was a very challenging year within the Ontario college system.  Relieved because I had made it through the and had time to reflect, finally, over my experiences of the past 2 semesters and begin to learn from it and work towards my personal improvement as a teacher.

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When I started developing one of my courses I was made aware of the term Pedagogy which I had no recollection of ever hearing.  I learned that this was defined as the profession or function of a teacher (Collins).  Further reading brought forward the term Andragogy which is the science of teaching adults (Collins).  Again further research brought me to Malcolm Knowles' work in the field of adult learning and this started my formulation of my own teaching philosophy.  I am the bridge from pedagogy to andragogy for these students and part of my role as their teacher is understand that the are mature and engaged learners

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This first year showed me how unprepared most of the students were for the role in fire prevention and life safety we are preparing them for.  I told them that they were all Spiderman in that although they had a large amount of authority under the legislation, they also had a great responsibility to use that authority responsibly.

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Students are mature, active learners

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Relevant.......

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More to follow as I develop the page

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