Redefining my role as Teacher

[... first rays of light]
Originally uploaded by Stefan Mendelsohn

As each day goes by I find myself thinking more and more about what my new role as a teacher is in this digital and technical world we call teaching. I have come to an early conclusion that my goal as a teacher is to teach students how to teach themselves. It doesn't matter if I am teaching Math, Physics, Drafting...fill in the blank, in the end students may remember a few things from the content but the bigger picture is; did I teach them something about themselves and about how they learn best?
I find I am focusing more on being a resource and providing valuable resources to my students that help them achieve success in the content and understanding about how to learn. I have discussion weekly in my classrooms with students about "what is the point of school"? Through our discussions I get the sense that students are frustrated with the way schools are set up and how "pointless" some classes are. They make the point, "when will I ever use this again in my life?" My comment is that true, you may never need some or most of what you learn in school, but the important thing is that you learn how to learn so that you can teach yourself anything that you will need to learn in your lifetime. Most of the content I learned in school I had to reteach to myself if I needed it in University or at a job. So to me, the bigger lesson, the bigger picture is; can I teach my students what their learning style is and can I provide resources to help them discover and take advantage of what their learning strengths are?
To me this simplifies my teaching and makes me a more efficient teacher because I know where I should be focusing my energy and time. I am sure this philosophy of teaching, I guess you could call it, will change and evolve as I embark on my teaching journey but I feel I am on to something more foundational and valuable than trying to convince kids to learn this because they have to if they want to graduate or because they may need this if they go to University. If there is a method to the madness then maybe the madness might just make sense and be worth something in the end.