Creativity and Understanding
Teaching 2.0 Emancipation. Just finished reading this post over at think:lab, and totally enjoyed it. What I enjoyed even more were the video links at the bottom of the post. Ok, it’s really very late, so I couldn’t watch them all, but what I saw was a great example of a normal teacher trying to make a meaningful connection with his students.
Sure, the approach won’t work for everyone. That’s not the point. The point is MEANINGFUL interaction. While I don’t know if I ever see myself doing something similar to what Drew has done here, watching his video around resume prep just got me thinking about how important framing or presenting our content really is.
If we just go with the ole fire hose approach, and soak our students with our content without actually trying to make it meaningful, we’re really just wasting our time don’t you think?
I wonder what would happen in the ESL classroom if a teacher, maybe you…maybe me, decided to employ a similar approach to explaining say…the past tense…or the past perfect tense. Most people that I know HATE grammar. Why? It’s sorta boring. Your brain (well, mine anyway…) seems to switch off the moment those rules come rolling down the aisle. So…what if we thought of different ways to package them? Would they make more sense to students? Would teachers have more fun teaching them? And would having fun while learning something USUALLY very boring, make a difference in what folks actually take on board?
I’m just thinking about TV shows like Beakman’s World. I’m 31, and I still find his style to be very engaging. I’m having fun, but I’m learning something…like what halitosis is. (Go ahead and watch…you might enjoy it, and you might just learn something new.)
I guess I’m just thinking that teachers have a really big responsibility. That responsibility, among many others, is to help their students REALLY understand what is taught. If the book explanation doesn’t cut it, or if the lecture totally flopped, what are we willing to do to make that vital connection with our students and the content? What have you done?
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