Oak Canyon

Today I went with Rachel and observed at Oak Canyon Jr. High School. I actually thought it was a better-than-usual expereince because we got to see a student teach teach the kids. The kids were pretty rowdy - what's new with 12-13 yr olds? - but I thought she did an okay job handling them. There were a few things I would have done differently. She had the kids do this big activity where they listed how many times they had been on different forms of transportation - it took like 12 minutes - all to just introduce cars . . . I think that there is probably a better way of introducing that - a more time effective way. I also was really taken back as they were talking about cars and a kid (one of the more rowdy boys) rose his hand and said: "I know a ton about carburettors." Rather than taking that chance to involve the kid and let him tell what he knew the student teacher responded with: "Do you want to write a report on it?" Well that took the kid by surprise and he said: "I don't write reports I usually let others do it and then write my name on it." Instead of trying to right the situation the student teacher apparently felt the need to 'show her power/authority' and she said: "Well I'll keep that in mind on the next paper you write." Come on lady - the kid is 13 and you're having a totally pointless argument with him - I was not very impressed with the whole things needless to say. I think that a much better approach would have been to help the kid feel involved, to let him share what he knew - sure it doesn't follow your lesson plan exactly, but it saves all that embarrassment - and isn't this all about teaching kids anyway? Who cares if you make it through all your material?

Learning

I never thought I would actually take a class where you learn how to learn. And despite the darkness of the classroom earlier, the lack of movement, and the absence of any 'hands-on activity' I actually really enjoyed the class earlier today. I am really into things like the color code, the 5 love-languages, etc. I think systems that place people in different groups are so interesting (I actually originally thought about being a philosophy psychology major) and so class today was pretty sweet.

I decided to put it all to the test. I am getting a new district here at the MTC in a few days and I'm going to try some new ways of teaching. Due to some interesting circumstances at the MTC my co-teacher won't speak Tagalog so I will be solely in charge of language while she handles the doctrine, etc. Because I will be doing solely language activities Im going to try using different intelligences each day to teach the language to my missionaries. I think it will be interesting to see how they react, and who learns in what way.

I know for me that I am very much a visual learner - if I can see something I can usually figure it out, but I really think that all of us are many different intelligences - thus in my opinion the most effective teaching would be one that would somehow involve many intelligences.

I'll keep ya in touch . . .