I love to read about the experience of teachers, particularly as they share the mistakes from which they’ve learned. Joel’s post, “Developing as an Undergraduate Teacher,” is quite forthright and helpful to those of us who are only just beginning the pedagogical journey. He explains how he was gung ho for this one particular method (sentence diagramming and discourse analysis) and wanted his students to learn it, but he was warned by fellow faculty (Scot McKnight) that it was a lost cause. He tried to make it work in various ways but ultimately realized that it wouldn’t. While I would never try that specific method with students myself, I can easily imagine some other pet passion that could blind me to the needs of my future students. It’s a reminder to always be aware of the needs of your audience/students as well as your own personal quirks.