But more
importantly, I loved this teacher’s approach. I have always advocated that
education has to be made interesting and relevant to the students. Delivering a
lesson through topics such as sports is interesting for children. Students were
listening to the teacher, answering questions, doing some research on the
computers and presenting their findings in front of the class. There was no
yelling or scolding, not having to continuously repeat directions, no
frustration, just a lot of fun enjoyable work and compliance. Subjects like
mathematics, geography, history, even science and social studies can easily be
taught through topics of interest and experiential learning. For example, I
can’t think a better way to teach fractions to fourth and fifth graders than
through cooking. All recipes, especially baking, include 1⁄4 cup of something
plus 3⁄4 cups of something else. In the case of the this particular class,
students were split in groups to work on the computers to find out the number
of participating countries, their history in the world cups, statistics and
much more. I can guarantee so much information was internalized and yes, I’m
talking about a special education class.
As I wrote
in my blog “Teaching Teachers”: (http://totaleducationsolutions.blogspot.com/2013/06/teaching-teachers.html )
“We can conclude that instead of
forcing the kids to fit teachers’ way of teaching, teachers need to be able to
change their way of teaching to fit their students’ needs. Children with
special needs do not learn the way we teach, so we need to teach the way they
learn.”
“As a first step, teachers can have
more of an impact by learning the art of motivation and the power of
stimulating instructional routines and structure. Simply put, this means
motivating students to perform non-preferred activities. Good teachers motivate
their students when they tell them they can have 10 extra minutes of recess if
they finish their work on time, or give them points towards a pizza party or a
preferred activity. Motivating materials (i.e. arts & crafts, music,
tablets loaded with educational software, etc.), topics relevant to kids, and a
loving, warm, and passionate approach to teaching are excellent tools.
Education does not have to be synonymous with boredom. It should be an amazing experience.” The class I visited was a real life example of this. The teacher did a great job. At one point he looked at me and said “you need to find something they like,” as if he was justifying the “crazy” subject. He was also planning to implement a rewards system where students get points towards preferred activities. Sound familiar? I was in heaven.
The sad part
of the story is that this teacher is the exception, not the norm. I can’t help
but wonder why. When is education going to catch up with sound, scientifically
proven methods of education? When are we going to stop demanding kids to
participate in boring, long and irrelevant classes?
When is it
going to be teachers and students tackling learning TOGETHER rather than
teachers AGAINST students? 
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