Reenergizing
I try so hard to keep things fun and refreshing so we dont ever feel like we need "reenergized", we will sit outside in the grass on warm sunny days for class discussions.I like to move seats around a lot, sometimes in a circle or a square, we do a lot of "ice breakers" when we are feeling sluggish, but it still happens occasionally. When it does I ask my class for ideas to "spruce" things up a bit and I always use one of their ideas. It really makes them feel good to give input on how our classes are conducted!
Small chewable tid bits of information with feed back and frequent short breaks can help move the lessons forward?
Jeffrey,
You are "connecting the dots" for your students and this is what teaching should be about. You are showing them that they need the foundational knowledge in order to make higher level applications later on. This is when the wow and light bulb occurs and this is a great feeling for an instructor.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I deal in teaching technique at its very basic level. And it can get some what boring at times. But when students grasp these techniques I will demonstrate how these basic techniques can be used to create new and different things and that it is only limited by their own imaginations. This brings the wow factor up a notch and the light bulbs start growing brighter.
Nicole,
I really like your ideas on changing locale. I sometimes try to move my classes from one lab room type to another. I teach in Visual Communication so sometimes I'll lecture on a design topic in a traditional lab using a whiteboard and physical media/demonstration. Then in the later half of the class, we'll move into the digital laboratory to apply what we learned in a traditional context to a new digital means. Typically, this is very appealing to my students because they "get to use the computer" as they sometimes say. Really, I am allowing them to follow through with a creative process that they will hopefully use time and time again as students and then as professionals.
The act of being able to physically move from one location to the next does keep things active and changing rather than static and boring.
