|
|
Teaching and Learning Principles: I strongly believe that teaching and learning should be joyful and effective. The Learning Manager The teacher should become a learning manager, whereby the pupils learn to teach themselves. The teacher should not tell a child to "Learn your spellings!" "Improve your handwriting!" "Do something about your low marks!" without teaching him how! We all learn differently. Each child should have opportunities to find out how he learns best, a life long benefit skill. Far too many children are kept in school for far too many years without being taught how to learn! Learning should be fun Lessons should be not too easy and not too hard. Children should feel that the teacher likes them. Children should feel that the day goes too quickly and should not find school time going too slowly. They should not be bored! They should have opportunities to be quiet and reflective, but not bored. 
Even on fancy dress day, children need time to be quiet and reflective, but not bored! Children learn best with their bodies (kinaesthetic learning) They learn by: doing, moving, rolling, jumping, crawling, shaking, running, building, stroking. They learn in short bursts of energy with segments of calm. They should be allowed to move around, to stand whilst doing a task, to memorise whilst walking, talking or listening to music. Some people have to move to think. (Notice them using cell phones!) Children need physical things like fresh air and water! In warm climates, move cupboards away from blocking air vents, and in cold climates open windows. The brain consumes 20 to 25% of the oxygen you breathe, so make sure there is plenty of oxygen in the room! Being stressed allows less oxygen to the brain, being relaxed allows more oxygen to the brain. Confident children who are comfortable and at ease in the classroom situation learn more efficiently than children who are anxoius and frightened or anxious there. " You can beaver and beaver away at spellings and reading and behaving, but if they feel they are ultimately no good, you're in a hiding to nothing situation!" Ray Rumsby, Norfolk Education Advisor. 
Learners need to have water to drink. Many children are dehydrated. Allow easy access to drinks. (NOT fizzy drinks!) Brains need to be squidgy to learn! When I have asked teachers to allow children to have individual bottles of water beside them whilst they work, the negative teachers say, "But they will be forever asking to go to the bathroom!" So I say, "Have you noticed how bladders seem to expand and cope when the person is really interested in something? It is usually only bored children who constantly ask to go to the bathroom!" Teachers need to explore which learning styles work best with their pupils, using qualitative and quantitative measures. Then they realise that what works well for some children's learning does not work so well for others. "I have told that child eight times and she still does not understand!" complained one learned and very highly educated teacher to me. "Yes Rosemary" I replied, "but, with respect, have you told her eight different ways?" Teaching needs passion I have a passion for making teaching and learning more fun and more efficient. My passion makes me tired, yet never lets me find the work hard, as the rewards are invigorating. I try to inspire passion in teachers, showing them ways to make their job more interesting, more creative, more satisfying and rewarding. In inspiring a passion for teaching, I believe this will inspire pupils' passion in learning. If I can inspire a passion for teaching in teachers and a passion for learning in pupils... ...then teaching and learning could truly excel! 
Teaching needs joy! What is the opposite of joy? Dreariness, lethargy, lack of inspiration, lack of vitaliy lack of care and consideration negativity apathy. If this is the case, we want joy and not joy's opposites in our classrooms! You cannot teach a child well if you do not like him. You can teach well if you show him you are pleased with him, if you praise his attempts and celebrate his achievements. In taking up attitudes of joy, you are a role model to other pupils and teachers. Through joy, you can promote respect, self value, enthusiasm and caring. A teacher can show joy of teaching, a pupil an show joy of learning and teachers and pupils grow in teaching and learning together. Some teachers mimic their own former teachers, standing aloof, patrolling the yard, seeking errors in children's work to complain about and never showing joy. Good teachers are not like this! Good teachers are interested, involved and enthusiastic in what children do. Smile with joy and the children smile back....such a fantastic attitude to promote good teaching and learning. Teaching needs creativity Creativity is a process of having original ideas that have value. Creativity is a gift of the human imagination. To be creative, you have to be prepared to make mistakes From those mistakes you can learn new things. Too often we instill in children the idea that they should not make mistakes. We say, "Do this right!" "No that's wrong!" We slash spelling errors with red ink lines and scribble illegible corrections over the top. Why? This does not accelerate learning. It impedes learning! A child who has an interesting word slashed with red ink because it is an incorrect spelling, uses an easier and less interesting word next time. He avoids making spelling mistakes, but his writing development is quashed and his creativity and individuality is confined. A fourteen year old Dominican student, whilst thinking about art and creative writing and trying to express his ideas in poetry, wrote the following: Creating new things Helping to express myself freely In the way I feel Defines who I am. In Art, the brush goes in a way I can It's like I am in control. With mistakes the brush makes me learn new things I make a mistake, but it looks better. In writing, the pencil goes in a way I can It's like I am in control. With mistakes the pencil makes me learn new things. I make a spelling mistake, but it sounds better. The teacher has to be creative to provide an environment that promotes easy learning. The teacher needs to be creative in the way the classroom is arranged and, if there are limited resources, then the teacher needs to become more and more resourceful. The classroom has to become a working environment and by that I don't mean a place to work, but a space that actually works in a way that promotes teaching and learning, a place where the walls and display areas work as a reference for information, for spelling, for motivating and, just as importantly, a place where good work is displayed and celebrated in a creative way. Teachers need to be collectors.. of things useful for the class They also need to be creative in the way they store these things. If something is hard to come by, they need to get the most out of it. All of the followinbg things cost nothing, but can become richly creative resources: Empty cartons can b e turned inside out and reformed and labeeled to use as storage containers pinned to the wall for work cards, pencils, paper. Store them inside each other when not in use. Charts made on the unprinted side of the pages of old calendars, can be zig zag folded to save ruling out lines and then stored zig zagged to take up less storage room. Brown paper bags can be made into puppets, polystyrene white goods packaging into display boards, empty electrical flex spools into tuffets! Shoe boxes can be covered in gift wrap and made into picture libraries for teachers to choose illustrations for work cards and for children to refer to when doing descriptive writing.  "When I start to throw away a brown paper bag or a cornflake box or some sellophane, I think "Stop!" and I look and try to imagine how I can use this in the classroom!" "When I see a broken branch, I imagine tieing it in the classroom to hang children's work!" "When I see a styrofoam box, I think "Pencil trays!" "I remember bubble wrap makes good backing on a wall, or on a table to display books" Teachers need to be creative in the way they present lessons... spending less time standing at the front trying to fill children's brains with facts, but including: more child activity, more child talking, more child chanting, more child singing, more acting out a situation, more pictures and drawings more creating of the type of lesson that holds the child's attention. This makes a learner: more enthusiastic, more self-confident, more inspired and more relaxed whatever his or her ability. Creative teachers have creative lessons, which accelerate learning by making it fun! An amazing amount of energy is available to those who get pleasure from what they are doing, and the pleasure does not just come from completing a task, but often from the experiencing along the way. Wow! , I have just read the following list And for your chuckles, I have just come across this list. Does it sound familiar? "Decide on clear cut goals. Break goals into sections so learner has clear path to get goal. Trainer must be positive and happy when working.
Trainer rewards progress, ignoring mistakes and focussing on success. |
|