Case based learning...I liked the term Natural Learning. "The modification of existing belief due to expectation failure is called learning." Learning is an interactive process and you learn from doing, changing and doing again.
"Good teachers try to set things up so that the stories they want to tell are exactly what the students want to hear." That is a quote from our first reading that I really liked.
As a foreign language teacher, I get a chance to set up natural learning or case based learning as often as I can. Building a little excitement first so that the students want to participate is a challenge as well. I have found that it is easy to build a little excitement every once and a while, but to keep the students involved continually is much harder. I love to use simulations and real situations in my class as much as possible. Next week I will be at a 5 day 24/7 German immersion camp with about 50 students. The German food is definitely a motivator as well. Sehr lecker!
I also liked the information on natural learning. My favorite saying in that article was "people don't remember what you tell them, they remember their experiences". I think this is important to remember when creating our lesson plans, yet I think it would be hard to do all the time. Occasional use would be most appropriate.
ReplyDeleteI liked your lesson plan about the potty break. I am sure you would get them to listen because most students like to take a potty break.
I must have missed that quote from the reading, but it is so true. I can't tell you how many times I have altered stories to get certain reactions from students. Even from different classes during the school day as you adapt to the different personalities in each of the classes.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your comments and Good Luck at your German camp next week.
Who are some of your favorite teachers from school?
ReplyDeleteI remember Mrs. Barbara Springer. She was my 12th grade English teacher and she told the BEST stories. Sometimes they had to do with what we were learning, and sometimes she had to stretch to make them fit. She did a lot with poetry and she was a great on-the-spot poet, so sometimes she'd tell us a story and then make up a poem about it.
I particularly remember her telling us a story about how she had been out late the night before with her son at the emergency room. He had lost a tooth that day and he and his brother were playing hide-and-seek with the tooth. He hid it really good.... up his nose. The doctor in the ER had to remove it. Boy, that was a great poem!
Pam, Thanks for your fun story. My favorite teachers were both crazy fanatic science teachers from high school, Mr. Klein and Mr. Forster. It almost convinced me to become a chemical engineer. Sometimes my wife wonders if I am smart enough to be a teacher. I think my students know more stories about my life than may be healthy for me, but so far I haven't had any embarassing youtube videos...Yay!
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