"Sharing the Stage"

I agree that teachers feel like they are on stage everyday and need to deliver a great performance for their "audience" or students. Buy any movie, play, or television show is much more interesting when there is more then one person performing. The "supporting actors" can even make your performance even better because you can bounce off them, take what they said and apply it to what you are doing. I believe it is not so much about completely "leaving the stage", but more about "sharing the stage". While a teacher should definitely have some control over the class, she should not have total control. She should implement lessons that include more discussion rather than lecture. She should listen to student's opinions and comments on certain topics and be open to the possibility of answers other than what is in her teacher's manual.

The verbs in partnering are the skills the students need that will help them learn in any content area. They include critical thinking, communicating, making decisions, researching, and presenting logically.

There is definitely a place for these verbs and concepts in my philosophy of teaching. In order to keep up with the changing times, they should be part of every teacher's philosophy. In today's classrooms, we need to teach student's how to apply the material they learn to real-life situations. They need to be made aware of why they are learning certain content and how it will help them in the future. These concepts are always used in real life at some point and are beneficial to all students as they move on in life.