Happy New Year- Let's Teach Without Talking!



source: http://www2.humboldt.edu/elearning/approach/cnrs-resources/learning-teaching-resources

Happy New Year! Happy New Term!

I am so excited at the many possibilities this year holds for me especially in my career. I am determined to grow and become better in all areas how about you?

So how did the first week of school go? I didn't realize how much I missed my students until they showed up in my room on Monday.
We had a lot of catching up to do and they thanked me for not making them write an essay about "How I Spent my Winter Holiday" (LOL)
This year I am resolved to literally teach without talking . I can picture someone wondering how on earth a teacher expects to teach without talking, isn't teaching synonymous with "Talking"?

NEWS FLASH: The days of a teacher doing all the talking are over! If you are a 21st century teacher and are still stuck in the rut of lecture method then YOU ARE WRONG!!!

If you have been the one doing all the talking please this year, give your students the chance to take responsibility for their learning, the teaching/learning process does not largely depend on you-sorry to burst your bubble. Research has shown that we learn by doing, this is active learning or practice by doing. 

 According to Geoff Petty:

Research emphatically shows that active methods:

·         create deeper learning and higher achievement (2)

·         create better recall by students

·         develop high order reasoning skills in students

·         are more enjoyed by students

Cooperative Learning is one ‘active method’ that has worked for me over time and this week I experienced some good cooperative learning as I watched my students do their tasks in groups. I split them into groups of 4 and gave them the chance to choose names for their groups. I got funky names like Baddest, CSK, Dope, Aljazeera, Swarovski, TMT, EL-Chapo, Distinction, A*, LMNTRIX and I particularly like Team No Name-very original. They explored learning materials as a team and chose group representatives to explain to the rest of the class. Teams formulated questions from learning materials to ask other teams and I was amazed at the high standard of questions that were set and the answers that were given. My role was just to go round and ensure that everyone stayed on task.  How easy can teaching get?

While researching, reading books and surfing the net to find information on how to make learning more interesting for my students, I stumbled upon awesome resources here. Active Learning

When you start using active teaching methods your life gets easier, you are less stressed and your students learn even better, that’s what ‘Teaching without talking’ is all about.

Enjoy the rest of the term!


CIAO!