THE VIRUS OF GOOD TEACHING

 

Why can’t great teaching go viral…be a virus that infects each and every one of us?

Seth Godin discussed the ideavirus. Languageisavirus.com is a virus to cure writers block. Designs can go viral. Math concepts can go viral. And, yes, viruses can go viral.

So why cannot each teacher spread viral philosophies to colleagues and students? After all, aren’t we trying to help one another and to help students become lifelong learners who must forever be able to teach themselves?

What follows is a profusion of viruses for inoculation. Future posts will examine each point with how-to’s and examples.

1. A magic word is engagement. In order to teach you have to metaphorically hit students up the side of the head so they can comprehend the amazingness of the content and the amazingness of the ways you will direct them through mind-blowing material. (If it's not mind-blowing, make it so.)

 2. Adapt your own style, not someone else’s. Use others as inspiration, but also learn to go your own way. Look inside yourself and teach others in the same way you would want to be taught. Just remember that your life is the life of an academic, and your students’ lives will probably be lives of a non-academic. You are not teaching them to be you, but to embrace your passion for a subject.

3. Ask questions. Begin each class with a question and spend the class getting everyone to arrive at the answer. One class equals one question. It does not mean you cannot ask and answer other subordinate questions, but each class focuses on asking and answering a single question. One point. One learning objective. One thing. The biggest pitfall of teaching is that we try to cover too much or we try to cover everything.

4. Move around. Always stand. Walk. Sit near students in the back sometimes. Talk to them from where they view the space.  Comment. Use humor. Have students create an ideal learning environment. Switch classrooms occasionally. Don’t dumb it down. But make it unexpected. Everyone loves surprises.

5. Read about motivation and persuasion. Learn about those things yourself so you can practice them in your classes. Persuasion is about changing beliefs, values and attitudes to lead to behavioral change. Apply that to your teaching and to student learning.

6. Recognize that technology means nothing and has no specific application to learning unless the content and the engagement and the passion and the desire to learn are there first. There is no such thing as Ipad learning. There is only using the Ipad as a tool.

Remember, we are teachers. That is what we are hired to do. To be motivated, interesting, passionate, enthusiastic and remarkable in our own ways.

• Honestly…very honestly…you cannot do that by sitting for an hour.

• You cannot do that by PowerPoint slides that use less than 30 point type and just have boring bullet points and never a graphic.

• You cannot do that by not truly, madly, deeply connecting.

• You cannot do that by thinking what is interesting and fascinating to you will be interesting and fascinating to someone else unless you make it interesting and fascinating to someone else.

Get the virus. Spread the virus.