As some of you know I am currently involved in the Transforming Learning Through Teaching 12-week Seminar through the Center for Teaching Excellence. I thought that I might explore blogging by sharing some of the ideas from the seminar here.
Week 1:
The first week we explored the advantages of icebreaker activities in the classroom. I know that those of us who attend Tutoring Inservices have the advantage of experiencing a wide variety of these in practice, but I was surprised that many of the participants had never tried an icebreaker in their classroom. For those of us who may be running out of icebreaking ideas (hah!!), the CTE has a list of at least 32 ideas and other web resources at: http://www.lcc.edu/cte/resources/teachingettes/icebreakers.html
Also covered was the importance of learning students' names in order to foster a “community of learning.” The CTE has a list of 24 ideas for remembering students names: http://www.lcc.edu/cte/resources/teachingettes/whatsinaname.html
Because I’m a visual/kinesthetic learner, I find it sometimes helps me to write out a name---with my right 1st finger on the palm of my left hand, if no other writing options are handy.
Week 2: Motivating Students
“Whatever a teacher can do to increase the value of the learning to students and to help students hold optimistic and positive expectations about their own ability to succeed will aid motivation.” [Cross, K.P., (2001). Motivation: Er…Will That Be on the Test? The Cross Papers, No. 5, League for Innovation in the Community College, Educational Testing Service.]
…so the best we can do as teachers is to create the conditions for our students to want to learn, & let them take it from there. This session also briefly addressed “Six Principles for Motivating Students to Learn” [Cross, 2001] which may seem familiar to most of us:
1. Expect Success
2. Create Optimal Levels of Challenge
3. Encourage Feelings of Control
4. Capitalize on Intrinsic Motivation (interests, callings, sense of accomplishment)
5. Give Informational Feedback
6. Capitalize on Social Motivation
…but I have to say one of the highlights of the session was an example of using “appropriate” humor (and Dr. Evil) as a motivation device: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnDj4YroP1w
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2 comments:
These links look like great resources, Amy. I look forward to looking them over!
Names can be a challenge for me to remember, more so than faces. My best strategy for remembering names is to repeat them aloud, with the student and when the student isn't here. (I do the same thing to learn colleagues' names.)
Hey Amy!
These days I'm not (technically) doing a lot of tutoring, but I want to point out that so many of these tutoring tips and tricks are actually handy for all sorts of work situations.
I'm working with the Oklahoma Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (try saying that 5 times fast), and I find myself running meetings, and a significant part of what we do is trying to educate people.
Using icebreakers as a way to help poeple feel integrated and motivated is one of the most valuable strategies I brought with me from TS.
The motivation strategies from week 2 are great! All of the principles help people (I don't get to call them students anymore, even though they are) feel more empowered and in a community. It really does make a difference in their attitude toward learning and tutoring.
Thanks for the post!
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