Students feel more engaged and are actually doing more intense work when they have choice. It does take a lot of energy to set up and keep circulating around the room to keep students from straying off task to mobile devices.
Students are given a chance to be creative and learn in a new way.
Students seem to enjoy the collaborative style of the lesson and seems to be more engaged.
My students love to feel empowered! Everyone benefits with this way of teaching because everyone gets to have some input.
Hands on learning is the way to go. I am loving teaching this class and my students are having a blast.
My students are learning to appreciate a more student driven environment. For several activities (projects) students are able to create their own outcomes based off a set of skills that they are required to demonstrate. At first there was struggleâŚfor the students on what to do and for the teacher to not specifically tell them what to do step by step.
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Being a facilitator instead of an instructor initially creates more headachesâŚkids arenât used to learning this way. They need to be told âstep 1, step 2, step 3, etcâ and donât like to think for themselves. But in the long run it creates problem-solvers (which is something I think kids are desperately lacking today) and self-sufficient learners!
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Being a facilitator instead of a lecturer or instructor is challenging for me. But the students really respond to it in a positive way.
My students responded well to the coaching style of learning as they developed their websites. Each day I introduced new code that students then applied to their webpages. Students helped each other find mistakes in their coding and took it upon themselves to find and learn code when they wanted to do something that was not yet covered.
This is traditionally how I have approached teaching, though I will say, those days when I donât follow inquiry based instruction and fall back on lecture based instruction are the worst days for both me and the students!
Hi,
I realize that assuming the role as facilitator and coach helps to develop student leadership and communication skills. Also, allowing students to become facilitators helps build confidence.
Students are excited to begin work on coding and well they enjoyed the projects, they were ready to move on.
I use a âcoachingâ method in all of my classes. The kids fight against it at first, but really appreciate it in the long run. They are forced to think and figure things out for themselves. It is great.
Last year was my first year teaching ECS, as I normally teach Graphic Design, and have come from industry as a digital photo retoucher and artist. I wasnât aware of too many teaching styles, but lend my class to be heavy on project based learning, whilst giving realistic projects. I hadnât realize that I am in the instructor/facilitator stage as a teacher, as that approach seems to work the best for me.
I have been applying that same approach when I was teaching ECS, but at a much slower pace, since I was new to the material, despite having a curriculum create alreadyâŚwhat I realize is:
- I donât like to teach by the book.
- I like to read the material and teach it from another angle, and with my flair and personality as well.
- My students were aware that we both were in the inquire stage, and I welcome them to asking and finding answers amongst themselves AND with me, and vice versa.
- I wasnât embarrassed or afraid of not knowing, and the kids were very respectful because we both were in the same boat.
My students respond well, because I approach my material in a very unorthodox, unique, and weird , outside the box method, that peaks, and still questions them to find solution amongst each other. Iâve created that class environment, where we donât laugh at one another, we laugh together.
The benefits that I have noticed is that students feel more confident and enjoy exploring new ways of learning.
I have not starting teaching the class yet but in my other classes I do like the facilitator role. It allows for questions and I do like when the more advanced students help each other.
It works well if the students can work in pairs and have more creative control.
It works well if the students can work in pairs and have more creative control. My students like to get in there and figure things out as they go along. I find my challenge is getting them to let me teach them before they create.
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At first when using this way of teaching, the kids seem a little lost. I spend a lot of time at the beginning of the year answering the age old question, âIs this right?â My response is âWhat do you think? Why do you think this is right?â As time goes on, they become much more confident in their ideas as well as becoming more fluent in their justifications for their answers.
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I have am less about standing and delivering and more about coaching and facilitating I learned a long time ago that I have very bright students who do best when they are allowed some freedom in how they go about their learning in a style that works best for them. I like to have my students help each other if you can teach it to others you know it very well yourself. Team work is everywhere in the corporate world two heads are always better than one. I want my students to be not only self-directed learners but good coaches and teammates as well.