Why This Blog

Anthropologist, teacher, educator and critical thinker --- that is how I have described myself in my other blog, The Critical Thinker http://www.the-critical-thinker.com/.   The question that asks itself then is, if I already have a blog on critical thinking, why another one? Well, I started studying and using critical thinking as an educator --- getting students to think for themselves and at a deeper level as well as in making my own classes more interesting.  As I delved more and more into the arena, I realized that critical thinking is something that belongs not only to the realms of education, but it is skill that makes our everyday lives better. I thought I would be able to incorporate all my ideas about critical thinking in one blog. But as I started publishing my posts, I felt the need to separate critical thinking for everyday life from critical thinking in pedagogy. This blog focuses on the later.  

This blog will also connect pedagogy and critical thinking with social interaction. Teaching is all about interaction. There are several arenas in which these interactions unfold --- the classroom, the staff room, and in today’s world, social media such as  a blog.  This is the anthropological insight that I always bring into my teaching; this is the insight I hope to communicate to my readers too.

Critical thinking is a buzz word in the teaching world today. But how to convert these skills into successful lessons is another ball game. The key idea behind this blog is to help educators incorporate thinking skills into their lessons.  I bring in my own three decades of experience as a teacher, as well as my extensive academic engagement with pedagogy into my posts. I am an avid reader, who is constantly trying to find connections between theory and practice ---  in this context,  translating education theory into everyday classroom strategies. Finding material that can be adapted into successful teaching sessions, and creating feasible lesson and unit plans is something that I am constantly helping teachers, both at school and college level, with. This blog is a reflection of those ideas.

This blog also highlights my take on critical thinking.  One of the bedrocks of critical thinking is questioning skills --- knowing how to question, when to question and what questions to ask. It also involves questioning ourselves as educators -- honestly reflecting on our actions as well as our own thinking and if needed, modify them. To do so, we should also be able to appreciate the fact that our own perspective is not the only one --- there are other equally valid perspectives on the same issue, which have to be consider in order to critically evaluate something . Hence, for me critical thinking is all about Questions and Perspectives.

I see my role in this blog somewhat as a curator. Having spent decades doing classroom teaching, I know what a hectic life a teacher leads. One day leads into another, leaving very little time for individual reading. Hence this is a humble attempt to bring interesting things in small bits that could perhaps give someone a teaching idea.

Last, but not the least, I see this blog as a conversation between fellow educators.  Please respond with your comments and thoughts so that we can keep this conversation going.