
When you work in a school, you realise there is an infinite number of ways to teach (or 'facilitate learning', oooh).
You don't have to use words (what speaks a thousand of them?)
You don't even have to talk at all some times (did I hear multi-media?)
You don't need books (well, ok, you do, but try getting your students to read and concentrate on the lesson at the same time - easier to get them to swim and hold a swimbook all at once)
You don't need notes (ever seen Whitney Houston belt out a number WITHOUT memorizing the lyrics?!)
You don't have to stand 'in front' of the class (what do you honestly think of a lecturer who never ever moves from some stationary post at the front? like there's some invisible boundary line between him/her and the class?)
You don't even need to be physically present (ever learnt anything from a book whose author you never met?)
You don't have to stick to the lesson plan (though to be fair, I'm assuming you have one)
You don't have to get the students listening to you all the time (that's just a one-war street, how can we make learning multi-directional?)
Sometimes you don't even need you! (does the humble yet powerful role of the "relief teacher" ring a bell?)
"Shut up and get out of the way!", said the prof. I kid you not. Those are actual words. Out of the way? Of what?
Of learning, you people! (See, the dude's Caucasion. So instead of "lah", he prefers the more literal word-maps like "you people", a pity because why a professor in languages from the U.K. can't shoot off a nice Shakesperean insult when the occasion demands it is a saddening bafflement to contemplate... maybe I've could've smiled harder if I was screamed at with, "Thou bawdy plume-plucked jolt-heads! Remove thyself from learning's paths and be not ignorance itself in this!").
Now, of course, you should do some of those things up there some of the time. But I tell ya there's at least one which you don't want to caught dead doing in front of some of my instructors. I'll leave you to figure out which one.
Posted at 07:26 pm by alwynlau
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Alwyn October 14, 2006 09:04 AM PDT
Ah...how aptly are words on teaching spoken by a master-teacher herself, :) |
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lim siok lin October 12, 2006 09:52 AM PDT
Dear Al,
I'm pleased to see that you got it (whatever it was ) off your chest BEFORE going home to your loved ones !
yes! Teaching is a lot of things, its projected through many mediums - spoken, unspoken, felt , assumed........ a mere smile or frown sends a message too. Its just like life... how one navigates through the world is based on this very same thing you've mentioned. The trick to survival is to be to able to step back away from the fray, to reassess the situation and to alter one's course accordingly. Animals work on instincts, its only the humans who are able to change ones course of action.
Yes it would be something if ..... everyone spoke in Shakespearean verse or some other , but unfortunately this English prof doesn't , or perhaps he knew that quoting Shakespear would be lost of 99% of the group and to use it would be a waste of his time and energy. (looking from another perspective?) ...................... Then again maybe he was just pissed (pardon my French) or so frazzled that he reverted to his manner of speech prior to attaining professorship.
May I ask what did you do to him to illicit such a rude remark from an 'honourable professor of English / English professor' ????
Ciao ,
Limmy |
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