Things Learned

I attended seven full days of a teaching seminar a week ago. Here are some of the interesting things I learned....

Questioning is at the core of learning.
70-80% of questions are at the recall level
Most teachers call on overachievers
Teachers give students on average one second to respond
Frequently, teachers give answers
5% of questions are asked by students
Teachers ask an average of 50 questions in any given lesson

"It's not fair to the students if we teach in the same way we learned."

Be a performer, perform 7 shows a day(if that's how many classes you have)

I especially liked this last one and never thought of teaching in this way. The speaker has taught in Austin schools for 33 years, and has no plans for retirement. He suggested that even if you are not naturally enthusiastic and energetic just act like you are putting on a show, and go back to being yourself when you get home. If you are fired up about being at school and about learning, the kids will naturally pick up on that attitude. He also made this same suggestion about pessimists. If you are a pessimist by nature, you've got to at the very least pretend to be an optimist and cheerful otherwise your colleagues and students will pick up on your negativity and dread being around you. He also said that by pretending to be an optimist maybe you will 'accidentally' become an optimist!

We also spent quite a bit of time studying and implementing Harry Wong's classroom management techniques and Madeline Hunter lesson planning(25 hours altogether).

Thanks SOOOOO much to all of you who took vacation time off of work to help watch the kids for the week. I learned a great deal and am very glad I was able to attend.