Find ways to excite yourself, Learn together.
I find that with most people givin the opportunity to express where there intrests lie, creates ownership and sometimes even leads to learning together as a group.
Always, always, always be excited about your material. You are about to share a Gift with your students!
I totatlly agree. I find it is really easy to teach my main class because it is a subject I really enjoy to talk about. I can go on and on about some of the smallest details about certain parts of the bike I teach about. The technical details are huge and when I find my self so excited about the details, I can see in my students that they are having a good time as well. I am not sure if it has to do with the "show" I am putting on or that they are really enjoying the details too. I think they are just having fun and learning as much as they can at that point.
Hi Dustin,
There is nothing wrong with a good show when teaching. If you can "act" out a method or strategy to solve a technical problem go for it. It keeps the students engaged and focused on the knowledge and skills they need to acquire.
Gary
I agree with this also. As a web design instructor I give my students assignments to find a CSS technique that they have seen on the web but don't know how it's done so that we can investigate as a class what steps to take in discovering how to emulate the technique and sometimes how to improve upon it. I also during the first week of class have them share websites that they frequent which allows us all to sometimes see some new things that we haven't seen before.
I agree that acting or performing can be very helpful when teaching. I often find myself getting a bit "geeked" about the material I cover. I like to find interesting examples, like the National Bring Your Favorite Ballpoint Pen to Work day as mentioned in the reading for this Unit. Quirky bits of information such as this can help connect students and keep them curious about what you will teach them next. This also helps me to always be on the lookout for new and interesting information!
Melissa
Hi Melissa,
Good strategy. Even though it may seem silly having different kinds of fun or alternative activities helps to break the tension of only content. This enables the students reset their minds on the content and they will have a higher cognitive processing level as a result.
Gary
