Are you teaching, or talking?
I recently attended a conference where there was a number of different speakers talking about everything from time management, to classroom activities, to contract negotiations. While a few of these speakers were not very informative, there was one speaker who stood out in my mind. This speaker talked about teaching to the student, which sounds easy enough, but there are a number of teachers who don't do this.
What do I mean when I say teach to the student? Well, if you look at your teaching style, do you know what your students abilities are? How do you know these abilities? Lets just take a computer class for example. Do you have students who only know how to turn on a computer? Maybe the majority play computer games or surf the internet all night when they get home. Some might have a basic, or not so basic website or computer program that they created. How do you know this without some detective work? Many students don't think of these things as skills or talents, but rather as just something that they do.
A great way to get students thinking, and find out about their talents is a simple worksheet with some open ended questions:
This will also cause you to change your teaching plan, because no two semesters or classes, for that matter, will be the same. If you change your teaching plan, your students should get more out of it, and feel challenged. Otherwise, if you stand in front of the class and talk about things they already know, are they really learning anything? In the end, a little work on your part will be worth it. If you give a student a challenge, and the resources to complete it, you will be surprised with the results.
What do I mean when I say teach to the student? Well, if you look at your teaching style, do you know what your students abilities are? How do you know these abilities? Lets just take a computer class for example. Do you have students who only know how to turn on a computer? Maybe the majority play computer games or surf the internet all night when they get home. Some might have a basic, or not so basic website or computer program that they created. How do you know this without some detective work? Many students don't think of these things as skills or talents, but rather as just something that they do.
A great way to get students thinking, and find out about their talents is a simple worksheet with some open ended questions:
- How many hours a day do you use a computer?
- What do you mainly use your computer for?
- Have you ever thought about writing a computer program, or creating a website?
- If so, have you ever done so?
- What would you like to learn from this class?
This will also cause you to change your teaching plan, because no two semesters or classes, for that matter, will be the same. If you change your teaching plan, your students should get more out of it, and feel challenged. Otherwise, if you stand in front of the class and talk about things they already know, are they really learning anything? In the end, a little work on your part will be worth it. If you give a student a challenge, and the resources to complete it, you will be surprised with the results.
posted by Tech Teacher | 6:16 AM
1 Comments:
You touch on a very valid, and often overlooked point here, and that has to do with the assumptions kids make about themselves. As an illustration:
My husband, my elder son and I are all sporty and keen readers. My younger son is neither of those two things. All his life he has felt that he has no talents, because he is not good at the things in which we excel. When we pointed out to him the things that he excelled at, he would say, "But that's easy - anyone can do that!" What he failed to see was that they were easy to him, but not to other people, just as playing sport or devouring a book came easily to us. He could not see that his talents made him unique because they were not shared by the rest of the family - he just judged himself a failure because he didn't excel in the same things as everyone else.
In the same way, it is very likely that students will take for granted the things that they do easily, assuming that everyone does them, and not even seeing them as ability or talent.
PS - as he has grown older my son has begun to appreciate that the things he does with ease are not necessarily easy to the rest of us, but it has been an uphill struggle!
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