Our last class was very interesting.
Marya's presentation was very focused and task-based.
Placing us in a situation where we had to argue for a philosphy was a good way to help us think about the pros and cons of the different methods.
Voting for the best method as a large group at the end was a way that we could express our real views rather than the ones we were asssigned to represent.
Observeing the Korean teacher video was interesting and instructive.
It was interesting to hear what others thought about the teacher and his methods.
I was surprised that more people did not pick up the spelling mistake on the board.
My daughter had an English teacher that could not spell. It was disturbing.
My daughter and several of her friends were studying at our home and several of the sudents had the same (several) spelling mistakes in their notes - because they copied the teacher's notes right off the board.
I really wasn't too concerned about spelling - after all it is only a truly uncreative person who cant' think of more than one way to spell a word.......
It was that she was a poor writer, a mediocre speaker, and a very uncritical reader - in addition to not exhibiting an inability to control the class.
... I digress
I do think that just a 10 minute clip is a really short observation to judge someone on.
On the other hand there are things that we all do that we do all the time.
I think that it is important to be able to give people feedback both positive and negative.
I was at a conference on Saturday and the speaker chose not to use the microphone. He could be heard well at the start of his commentary but then was lowering his voice at the end of his statements. Some people were could not hear. Several of them were wondering if they should say anthing and if so what.
They did not want to hurt his feelings.
So the suggestion was made that they should start out by saying they were really interested in what he said and did not want to miss any of it - could he use the mic or speak louder
This was very difficult for these adults to do. (at a seminar that they paid for and gave up a Saturday with friends and family to attend)
Learning to give and take feedback is a very important skill in the classroom and in life.
2 comments:
I disagree that 10 minutes is too short of a time to judge a teacher. Although, it would be better to be given more time. The clip that we watched showed the introduction of an exercise and alot of information can be drawn from the students body language and reactions from the T's directions. We can not analyze all of his teaching skills, but primarily his student assessment, clarity of directions, pacing, implementation of prior knowledge could be some things that could be kept in mind with this short clip.
I like how you attempted to ask the speaker to speak up.
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