Korean Job Discussion Forums

[superacidjax]

A great article.. In a nutshell, it suggests that things like iPods should be encouraged in schools as information tools rather than banning them in favor of rote memorization..

http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/05/04/ipodban/index.php?lsrc=mwrss

[Homer]

Combine both methods and you get the best results as they stimulate different areas of the brain.

Students learn better that way too.

[VanIslander]

I take what used to be called the Socratic method of leading students to knowledge (knowledge they used to know, according to old Greek ideals of universals), though it's more informed by a Wittgensteinian approach of assembling reminders for a purpose.

Guessing games are central to my method. My students learn early to "Think!" and "Guess!" to extend concepts and develop their understanding of concepts and rules and their limitations and applications.

I also use the interrogative method often. Rules are not given as much as inducted through examples. Inductive reasoning is a must in my class and they learn that quickly.

No student can sleepwalk through my class, one reason I stay in 6-12 student per class hagwons instead of the masses of public schools. No free rides. I interact often and with a demanding tone, and show genuine satisfaction when they "get" it or at least demonstrate an honest effort to figure it out.

CELTA training mantra includes "Ask before tell" and "Show don't say" and that fits in well with what I do in the classroom.

I am pleased when a student says "I don't know" and and say "Good! Now guess." I give hints. I don't spoon feed.

They are engaged and often grow tired, but with a review game or quick quiz at the end of the class there is a direct payoff that keeps them satisfied. If a student doesn't try to think, he gets kicked out into the hall. I say "he" because in my experience it is only a rare boy (almost never a girl) who is unwilling to put out the mental effort to give an answer and learn from their mistakes.

Of course, I teach elementary students primarily, and have great success with grades 2-3 students and struggle with my few (three) middle school student classes.

Technology isn't used in my classroom much, though there are ways to utilize it to help engage the students more, and in those (limited) ways It'd be useful to my approach.

My students may not learn as much as others do, but they darn well understand what they do learn! I think in horror of public school situations where one teaches 40-50 students once a week... that's not teaching, that's factory work. Computers can help there, to give a more personal immediacy, even if unmonitored hence open to the abuse of cheating.