“Hands On” Learning
Teaching a kid something can be like banging your head against a brick wall. But there are tricks. One I have learned is to make the learning hands on. Instead of presenting the kid with “What is a synonym for something?” why not teach him/her something he /she loves, like electricity and lightning! Then you can use the vocabulary of that science in the context to show what a synonym is. e.g. “The city was arid and the dam had no water to make electricity.” What is a synonym for arid? Now the kid can dissect the sentence and really get into the context because he/she is interested! Hands on learning takes a bit longer to prepare, but pays off so much more than rote instruction with no relevance.
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Tags: education, Science, Teaching
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on Monday, January 7th, 2008 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Teaching. So far it has had 372 views.
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Here are a couple posts from my related blog posts I enjoy: Sarah, aged 3, Learns About Soap - Science Toys You Can Make With Your Kids
This is exactly how I teach my kids, Damien. One of the central reasons why my husband and I chose to home educate our children is that the curriculum and assessment programme here is so strict that this kind of learning is becoming obsolete in our schools. It was essential for us that our children would be able to follow their own individual interests and develop a true love of learning, and we felt that they could no longer do this within our education system.
I think your students are extremely lucky to have you as a teacher, and I think they’re also lucky that there is enough leeway allowed to incorporate this style of learning into mass education. Very encouraging!
OT: I just found something yesterday that I think you and your kids might enjoy working with called voicethread.com. Check out my blog for a post with a link to my first thread. The kids and I are going to experiment with it further today. Could be really great for project work!
Your ideas on teaching sound very exciting to me. I look forward to reading more.
Well, Damien, I’ve written a post on some of the thinking behind why a home educate. Hope you like it!