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Crash course on being a better teacher?


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Hive - do you have any resources that you can recommend to help me be a better teacher to my elementary kiddos? Something along the lines of child development or teaching techniques perhaps? I'm not afraid of the information that I need to transmit to my child, but I'm not sure that I'm doing a good enough job of *transmitting* that info. Any help, please?

 

Also I'm in a season of life where suggestions of the quick-read or easiest-to-implement variety would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance!

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I second Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire. It is an easy read and very motivating. However, I don't remember a lot of actual teaching advice and what was there was more relevant to middle school.

 

I would also recommend Why Students Don't Like School. This is another easy read with a lot of practical advice on teaching. Here is a thread where this book was discussed.

 

 

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Could you describe the YouTube video?  I can google it on my own.   ;)

 

Yes, sorry, I got distracted by children who needed attention and didn't have time to follow up on this.  (Anyone know if we can post youtube videos here?)

 

Go to youtube and search for "This Will Revolutionize Education"  The talk is ostensibly about technology & education, but I really love how he describes how learning happens and the role of the teacher.  I had happened to see the post and be inspired by it right before reading your question yesterday.

 

I also like the pp's suggestions - Teach Like Your Hair is on Fire and Why Students Don't Like School.  For Math education specifically, Patricia Clark Kentschaft's book Math Power is excellent.  I am always inspired by Michael Clay Thompson's writings about how to teach the classics without killing the love of books - Classics in the Classroom is good for this.

 

These forums are an excellent resource, too - search for posts by old-timers (sorry, guys!) whose teaching styles you find inspiring, and you will find many gems - some to start are with are 8FilltheHeart, Nan in Mass, Lori D, JennW in SoCal, and lewelma.

 

Some time ago 8FilltheHeart posted a link to a document about Jesuit education.  I learned from that the concept of prelection.  That would be worth a search & read.

 

Learning about how learning works is incredibly helpful.  Coursera has a class called Learning How to Learn and the related book is A Mind for Numbers.  These are both excellent resources, and things your kids can read too once they get a little older.  My 7th grader started the year with those two things and got a lot from them.

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I have a blog series I wrote awhile back when I worked through applying The Seven Laws of Teaching to homeschooling: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2012/seven-laws-of-teaching-your-own-series

 

I know Jennifer Dow at Expanding Wisdom is also going to start publishing videos of examples of socratic dialogue teaching soon, but she already has several short pdf resources. She's a homeschool mom who went through CiRCE's teacher apprenticeship program.  http://expandingwisdom.com/teaching/

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If you have boys, I would also highly recommend you read a few books on how boys learn differently.  This is something that I think is very important for moms teaching sons (and btw will also shed light on why many of our curious, excited boys go into b&m schools and do not thrive there.) Man, most of the books I read years ago, so I'm trying to recall titles. Books by Michael Gurion were really good.  These should get you started and you can find more at your library or bookstore. 

 

Lisa

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  • 3 weeks later...

There are some talks here that I've had recommended to me.

Unfortunately when I tried, I couldn't download from Australia.

I should try again.

 

http://peacehillpress.com/audio-lectures/

 

From conversations with others I would say there was no better 'course' at becoming a better teacher than:

an incredibly challenging child who doesn't learn well from most of the great resources that are out there.

If you ask I'm sure you'll be overwhelmed with offers of a child that fits the bill.  ;)

They will keep pushing you to read, research and try harder.

 

I taught my eldest through primary years pre-web, we found the early version of this forum for her high-school years.

There are some responses in this thread that will be pasted into my resources file.

Second time around we rely much less on curriculli, especially as she has reached those magic middle years.

 

Good luck, enjoy the ride with them.

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There are some talks here that I've had recommended to me.

Unfortunately when I tried, I couldn't download from Australia.

I should try again.

 

http://peacehillpress.com/audio-lectures/

 

 

Just tried again and was able to get the download sent to me.

I look forward to working my way through these lectures. Thanks for the prompt original question.

 

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My first recommendation is the book "Why Don't Students Like School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom" by Willingham.  The subtitle is a much better descriptive than the actual title.  This book is jam-packed with useful information, and is a very easy-to-read writing style.  I LOVE this book.  I'm due for a re-read actually.  :-) 

 

Next (am I allowed this one?  lol): I am in the process of creating a blog that is essentially Teacher Training for the Homeschooler.  It is essentially empty right now (still at the stage of playing with format/layout and finishing my first ten posts which I will then mass publish), but it is my 2015 goal to get two posts up per week.  You might want to just save it in your blog reader or bookmark it.  The address is www.homeschoollaboratory.com  Ok, self-promotion over.  :-) 

 

 

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Auditory learner that I am, I love the Circe talks:

 

http://www.circeinstitute.org/audio

 

some are more helpful than others in terms of practical tips, but all are inspirational. 

 

and the Society for Classical Learning Talks:

 

http://www.societyforclassicallearning.org/index.php/resources-guest/media-guest

 

 

My personal favourite for teaching me how to teach so far has been from 2012: Andrew Kern on How to teach literature without killing either the book or the student (stick with it, it's worth it.)

 

They also have free back issues of their newsletter.

 

Oh, and the John Mays lectures about science are very good. I found the ones on his website:

 

http://www.novarescienceandmath.com

 

to be even better than the ones on the Society for Classical Learning site. 

 

 

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Two years ago I followed 'how to learn math', it made a difference in my approach in homeschooling.

I am raised with the idea you can math, or you can't' you can languages or you can't.

This course learned me about a grow mindset.

It makes a difference in our mathlessons.

My attitude changed so dd's attitude changed.

 

Besides that we got regurarely struck in a subject. The flow is gone, the motivation is running low, etc.

I've never regret to take time to work on motivation for a subject.

here , it helps to seperate that disliking learning certain skills, isn't the same as disliking the subject.

 

Hth

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