Learning Blog #2

Students are not robots

When teaching sometimes we can get wrapped up in the pressure of tests, standards, and goals. It would be a lot less stressful if we could send the information in an email to the students and they would be automatically programed to know and use the data. Unfortunately that is not how the human mind works. Also when teachers become rushed and stressed they focus on moving forward and being efficient and “fun” activities can be sacrificed. When having fun students are actively engaged and this allows their minds to make more connections and file this information away more permanently. One mistake that I believe teachers can make with this theory is that they focus too much on fun. With all the theories and methods in teaching balance is key. If I was to base most of my lessons on if they were fun or not I would need to keep in mind a few things. First of all, I need to have a strong enough classroom management system that will keep my students focus and keep order and control in the classroom. Also if the lesson content heavy enough that the students are learning while having fun not just playing around. One way teachers can monitor this is by being actively involved. If you are going to assign a hands on fun lesson and then sit at your desk you are being no more productive than the teacher who scares their students into learning using no fun. I believe that it is also important the when including fun into a lesson you need to know where your students prior knowledge ends. This prior knowledge needs to be on the type of fun you are having, game or activity you are playing, and content knowledge. If you assign a matching game with words that are 3 levels above your students and content they haven’t learned you have completely lost the lesson. However the same goes for the activity. Especially as years go on certain activities that may be common knowledge to the teacher may be completely foreign for the student. Just as we assess for content knowledge we need to pre-assess for where the “fun level” exists in our classrooms.