Teach like a rockstar

If we are looking at the traditional methods of teaching, (contrasted with my previous post) this could be relevant from lifehack.

Presenting can be scary to many people, and for others, it comes quiet naturally, but even the best presenters have to break free from their “tried and true” methods and shake up their audience. You know who understands this very well? You know who can change up their act and get people moving? Rockstars!

Replace the word 'presenter' with 'teacher'.

The post then lists, with a brief description, the following steps

• Make First Contact With Emotions
• Play Favorites
• Kick Over the Podium
• Wave Those Lighters
• Go Home Singing

Teacher talk for this is engagement.

"banking education” and “problem- posing education"

A recent Flosse Posse post had the following quote

Brazilian educator Paulo Freire made a difference between “banking education” and “problem- posing education”. In the first someone is trying to tell people what they should do and how, when the later one is asking people to define problems in their everyday life and join with other people to solve them. Problem-posing education does not only require dialogue among the people, but teaching of each other, co- investigation and joint responsibility of the process.

I find this attractive. My sense of an ideal world is being aroused and noticed that after reading it I looked away and up trying to picture how this could work. I wonder how we could make this happen?

A good teacher sells the learning - engagement

This link is from a blog focussing on creating passionate users of software. I subscribe to it because there is so much there that can be translated into creating passionate people about all sort of things. It, of course, relates well to the learning environment and the craft of teaching. Well this post about teachers learning from marketers to improve their craft has really pressed some buttons for me. I think the author, Kathy Sierra, has nailed some really good points. It reminds me of a conversation that I had with my then curriculum senior somewhere over 20 years ago where he was telling me that a good teacher sells the learning. He was talking about engaging students and so is Kathy.