I have noticed that with style of teaching ‘one style does not fit all.’ I have A and B day classes and these two classes are different based on their total learning style makeup and the overall characteristics of my class. With my A day class, I am more of a facilitator because this group of students can work more independently and my B day ECS class requires more guidance and constant feedback. Overall, I have learned to adjust my teaching style in order to accomodate all students-in most instances.
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I have noticed students who many times sit back and don’t even participate are getting involved in projects. They are putting in their two cents worth. Everyone seems to have an opinion. They aren’t afraid to speak up because it is among their peers noot just between them and the instuctor. The more advanced students are moving at a fast pace and the slower students are getting encouragement from those advanced students.
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My class is made up of mostly college minded kids. They are not shy to share their thoughts but even these kids have come out of their shell a little more than I thought they would as thinkers. They respond well to challenges and share their ideas openly with the class. It’s really neat to see them learn from each other.
Teaching as a facilitator and coach rather than lecturer has been great for my students. It has helped students to buy into the content because they understand they have an active role in learning. It has also encouraged students to ask more questions and try out new educational tools.
I had to get used to this idea that I am not 100% in this field, which took some getting used to. I’ve noticed that I’m learning with the students and that we get to work together to figure out the solution. The kids are constantly finding things that I never thought of, and in ways that may work better than I anticipated. My kids seem to be excited in knowing that since I don’t know everything that there isn’t that constraint on them as well. They are frustrated at times as they still want a black and white answer from me, but they are able to use their problem solving skills to come up with some pretty unique ways to handle the problems.
Benefits I have noticed in the classroom: students rely on one another to find solutions, they take ownership of tasks. This teaching style is a bit uncomfortable for me as I am a math teacher. Traditionally my classes are lecture based . Most students embrace this new way of learning and discovering by experimenting , others think that I don’t know anything.
I agree with you. I have a class of 35 freshmen, 3 girls, 32 boys. They are not ready for this kind of environment, much too immature.
After working with juniors for years, I found the change to freshmen challenging. What techniques and strategies can be used to support students as they develop the skills?
Andrea
I have always preferred to teach as the facilitator in the room. This curriculum makes that easy to do.
With this style of teaching, I have noticed students are more relaxed because they know that the answer is based mostly on how they are thinking. It has also allowed students who don’t usually talk in class to be more active because they feel their answer is valid. I have always preferred being a facilitator in class. Lending students how to think not what to think and allowing them to draw their own conclusion is my style of teaching. This curriculum makes it easy to do that.
Students have been engaged in this Unit. Overall, they have struggled to not “have all of the information” but they are now working fairly independently and are more likely to share their solutions with others in the group.
More discussion and discovery with this type of approach.
I am in the same position. I am teaching the course this spring. I think the design of this course will allow students to work collaboaratively with other students to determine the problem and then address the issues to come up with solutions. I also think it will be a great way for students to analyze problems/situations and talk with one another to determine their strategies for problem-solving. I believe that the students will eventually gain confidence in their thoughts. I also feel that the students will love the hands on style instead of constant lecture.
The facilitator and coach styles are much more effective for both student engagement and content retention. Even with something as basic as vocabulary, my students understand, retain, and use the appropriate terms much more successfully that with a traditional drill and kill method. For me, the biggest challenges to these two styles is on the logistical end. Grade books, due dates, grade cutoffs, etc. are a big problem under the coaching style.
Being a facilitator has made my classroom much more collaborative. First, students are more willing to ask me (and their peers) questions, because there is no fear of what is “should be known.” Everything is new and everything is a valid question. Second, as most of my students are exploring, there are multiple opportunities for students to share something new that they learned, and so feel more invested in the classroom community.
By using projects and inquiry in my classroom, it allows the students more freedom to explore a topic in a style that helps them to learn how to apply problem solving to things outside of the classroom.
My students appreciate the hand-on approach but I think they appreciate the non-lecture aspect of the approach even more.
My students and I prefer the teacher in the role of facilitator/coach. My students like independent and small group projects and working at their own pace. This can be very difficult to manage with a 35student:1teacher ratio, especially when students want to share their work during the creation process and have lots of questions.
With over 20 years of teaching experience, I have learned through trial and error that being the “sage or the stage” leads to boredom, lessons that are too short or even worse too painfully long, and many times end in confusion and me repeating myself. When I began the practice of being a facilitator, I realized how much I love this job! Letting go of the reigns and realizing I couldn’t possibly know everything was scary at first but soon became freeing. I will often say to students when they ask a question, “you tell me.” Sometimes I know the answer, other times I do not, but over time I have learned this actually works. The students learn to access the resources I have taught them to use and by doing so, continuously have ah ha moments that make them feel so empowered.
Being a technology teacher who is responsible for teaching Animation and Web Design (3 applications and a 2 programming languages), Introduction to Programming (2 programming languages and robotics), Advanced Programming (yet another programming language) as well as 2 college level business courses and a financial literacy course, I have become a “jack of all trades and master of none.” I had no choice but to let go of writing lessons and lectures with minuet detail. Instead I had to develop a game plan that focused on learning styles and higher-level thinking skills. The benefits for the students are that they are much more engaged, challenged, excited, resourceful, determined and cooperative. I feel like my classroom has become a safe place for students to fail. I love in one of the Unit 2 videos how they use the saying “not yet” rather than fail. I can honestly say that every day, every student learns something in my class because they were engaged and challenged. Letting go of the old school “sage on the stage” mentally has made what once felt like a “job” a true passion. I get to connect with every student, every day rather than stand before them spewing information.
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Mreffron,
The coach/facilitator role is also great to foster independence in learning. With so many available resources online for the students, they can seek out their own knowledge of whatever they find interesting and bring it back to share with the class and you can help guide them towards a final project with it.
Brad