Once again, I am a bit uncertain as to your schedule at Central. Please comment here on what you did in class, and note what you think is the most important thing you learned from the class.A couple of you are a bit behind on blog posts. Please catch up!
8 comments:
We talked about effective lectures today with Mr. Elliot. He was hilarious and made some key points. He emphasized the importance of bringing your own style into the classroom.One of the other important things I am going to keep in mind with the students, is when a student turns something in they are at least trying to attempt to achieve the objective. And that in itself is an achievement for some of these kids. So even though we want our students to reach thier fullest potential- sometimes with some students any effort is acceptable.
Yesterday, we discussed the how to prepare the perfect lecture, which apparently is something that can not be taught (or so Mr. Elliot says). The lecture highlighted one important point; students come from all walks of life, and we should structure our lecture to fit their needs.
Let me be up front. I didn’t like this lecture, because I felt it was a waist of my time. In short, I feel this was common sense, and I know I wasn’t the only one after leaving the lecture.
During class on Tuesday, we talked about lectures with Mr. Burt Elliot. He was a very funny guy with the best laugh I have ever heard. He had some great advice for lectures and you could feel the presence of a person that had alot of experience with teaching and lecturing. One of the coolest things I learned from Burt was how to act out a lecture and how to engage students in the lecture. I also thought it was interesting that he set his desk so that it could be approached in three ways. He did not like to have his desk seem hard to get to and he wanted the students to feel comfortable to approach his desk when they had a question.
The class on Tuesday featured Mr. Burt Elliott as the guest speaker. He told us stories about his past experiences, including how he was hired at Aberdeen Central. Then he explained how to do an effective lecture. Main point: create your own style, don't imitate somebody else, try to tailor your style to the students' needs, and be creative.
I found the lecture enjoyable and insightful on how to present a lecture. I could see how he has lasted for over 30 years in the profession: he still has the energy and enthusiasm for teaching students.
We did discuss the key aspects of an effective lecture. Mr Elliot did a nice job of highlighting the points that he felt are the most important (humor is definitely one of his trademarks apparently). I did like the fact that he stressed the importance of bringing your own teaching style into each lecture. This point seemed very useful because I am sure that a teaching style cannot just be taught. I believe that each teacher has to find what works for them and then try to use the other styles in the best way that they can.
We talked about effective lectures with Mr. Elliot, who is up for election on Tuesday for County Commissioner. He was funny to listen too, but he did bring up a number of good points to class. I thought the best advice is to do what you are comfortable with. I also heard this advice from the teacher I am observing for my Junior Field Experiance. He also told me that you will teach the best when you are who you are. Mr. Elliot was fun to listen too since he has been around the block and seen a lot of things in schools. So I thought he was a very good speaker for us.
The topic was effective lectures with Mr. Elliot. His main point of the whole lecture was that each of us had to find our own style of teaching and lecturing to be effective. He said it does no good just to copy one teacher but a good teacher takes some things from everywhere and combines them to make a style that is most effective for them.
Mr. Elliot obviously had a lot of information to share with us and if he wanted to he could have lectured for about three weeks strait. What he did tell us in class was interesting and he does give a good lecture.
I feel the most important thing Mr. Elliot stressed was to be true to yourself and find the style that works best for you. If you feel uncomfortable in front of the students they will pick up on that, and thus will focus more on how much of a dufus you look like rather then what you are saying. For, example I could tell that Mr. Elliot seemed very relaxed and comfortable and his personality reminded me of a number of my uncles, so I stayed rather attentive and engaged in the class. Bottom Line: I feel students are very perceptive to the moods of their teachers and will imitate those moods as well.
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