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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I understand what you’re saying. I remember this Spanish teacher that I had in high school for four solid semesters, Mrs. Cornwell. I remember, she made class so entertaining, and she was so motherly and understanding about everything that she did, that I barely took any notes, and passed the class with an “A.” Furthermore, I learned more from her than many other of my teachers I’ve encountered. I suppose she made it seem as if we learned the topic passively, as you might learn the personalities on a television show or all of the cool abilities in a videogame. It is rare that you find a teacher with that particular ability, I luckily had a few myself, and if you come across them, you can tell that they have that special ability within minutes of meeting them. Whatever the case may be, I believe that trait to be essential to be a true teacher.
Comment by C.T. — February 19, 2007 @ 11:56 pm
I completely understand what you are saying. We all know what it is like to have a teacher trying to get through to you and it just doesn’t work because the content is boring. Or possibly we are the teachers that are frustrated because we just know that the students are not interested and therefore do not put forth their best effort. I agree that you do have to be creative and take this material that might not be interesting and find a way to present it to your students so that they will enjoy it. If students are enjoying class I think they will become more engaged and will actually enjoy being in the classroom, which unfortunately is not the case for a lot of students now a days. It’s always good when teachers, like you can understand that students need to not be interested in the activity in order for them to pay full attention in the classroom. Have you found a method that seems to work the best when trying to get students interested in material that may be boring?
Comment by jfm — March 14, 2007 @ 3:13 pm