Yesterday and today my wife were primarily involved in hauling everything out of our son's room to then prep and repaint it. He's ten years old and shouldn't have to sleep in a room we designed for a baby.
Painting and home improvement are not my particular areas of expertise. The knowledge I gain doesn't so much make me effective as it makes me dangerous.
When applied to my teaching practice, how much of this phenomenon, of knowledge making me dangerous, happen?
Just because I know to spackle over nail holes and then sand the surface once it's dry doesn't mean I'm going to know that I should indent the first coat of spackle, sand that, and then reapply spackle and sand a second time. Where have I improperly spackled as a teacher because I knew enough to spackle but not enough to do it with the experience-based expertise of a true professional? I came to teaching via NJ Alternate Route in 2002. I had a music performance degree and got a 10-month course in Gardner's intelligences, classroom management, planning, and behavioral issues.
At the conclusion of that, and the satisfactory completion of Praxis, the State of New Jersey officially declared me a professional.
The kind of professional who still needed to find out from hard won experience to spackle, indent, sand, spackle again and sand, metaphorically speaking.
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