You'll
often see and hear the words "hands-on," "experiential," and "interactive"
from our staff.
Simply
put, we want you to involve the students, no matter what the age group,
through stories, games, puzzles, drawings, color, charts, slides,
maps, plans and physical activities.
Obviously,
you need to talk every once in a while, but we can assure you that
the more quickly the students are engaged in doing something, the
better your classes will go.
Don't
lecture.
It's
almost instant death, as you well know from your own experiences sitting
painfully through classes, lectures and meetings. It may take a while
to get the hang of hands-on teaching, but it's actually right up your
alley as a designer.
Think
back through your own life and education: When were your "A-ha's"?
What made some concepts stick while so many hundreds of others went
in one ear and directly out the other? Probably, they were the ideas
that came to you as compelling images, as funny or surprising thoughts,
as the answers to riddles, as insights that leaped from something
you were making.
Kids
are always learning, regardless of and often in spite of our efforts
to teach them.
They
are constantly studying adults and each other, reacting to the environments
they're in without necessarily realizing it, day-dreaming and fantasizing,
puzzling over something the teacher said yesterday....
In
short, they're mentally busy all the time and may not want to be interrupted.
If
you start out by showing them a picture, cutting up a piece of paper,
drawing a map, or putting something into their hands, you have invoked
their perceptions and their attention will follow.
This
sort of tactic is not just for the sake of novelty or "entertainment"
(though neither one hurts). It is a 100% valid and an increasingly
recognized teaching method that opens information up to the variety
of learning styles represented in all classrooms.
Each
person has a unique combination of conduits to the mind.
We
learn through seeing, touching, acting things out, talking (to ourselves
as well as to each other), arranging, choosing, and sticking things
together. If you vary your activities so that the students look, talk,
draw, look again, move around, build, and talk some more, you will
not only keep them awake, you will be spreading out different perceptual
and physical experiences so that everybody can be involved.
Imagine
this scenario:
On
the first day, you walk in and start to draw a picture of the school's
facade on a big sheet of newsprint. By not explaining it first, you'll
get their curiosity aroused. (Plus, they love it when you draw; do
it whenever you can.)
You'll
hear them begin to wonder out loud what you're up to and start making
predictions that shift as you add more detail. Your drawing pulls
them right into a guessing game with a surprise answer that tests
their memories, powers of observation, and their abilities to read
schematic information, any of which can be the springboard into your
topic -- and you haven't said a word!
