Tuesday, March 22, 2005

The insane thing about some workshops on how to teach is how badly taught they are.

I mean, really. Can you not feel foolish saying to a group of teachers, "No one can sit still and listen to lectures for hours at a time. People must get up and move and be engaged on several levels to learn" who have been sitting still listening to lectures for hours at a time?

I went to a workshop today and I didn't get out of my seat (with permission) except for two times. It was an eight-hour workshop. The workshop was on how to use lots of different techniques to teach different learners. And all they did was lecture. I don't believe that my personal learning style was taken into consideration at all. I would have killed to get up and stick stickers next to my predictions for the day. It would have been nice to hold an index card with a definition on it and then have to search for the person holding the word. Imagine the freedom in writing ideas down on sentence strips and having to arrange them in order.

These were the ideas they taught. I just wish they had taught the way they were teaching us to teach. Instead of listening to them drone on and on I passed mean notes about someone I don't like to my co-worker. I also wrote haikus in my notebook. I also whispered when I was supposed to be quiet. See what happens?
¶ 5:33 PM