I've long thought the skills of storytelling, acting, and comedy are the most important skills I use to teach my kids. Nice to see someone else agreeing.
I wasn't either, until a math professor at Montana State sent me the article. I've never met him, but I hope we can highlight more great experiments like this.
I have been reading this book based on this post. I find most of it (not all) intriguing and engaging, especially the chapters entitled spontaneity and narrative. I've been employing some of these techniques in my own home. As example, having my youngest son create a story based on questions that he is being asked after providing an initial prompt. "There is a man in a suit walking down the street." "Where is he going?" "Why is he moving so quickly?" "What is he carrying?" Had I just asked him to "tell me a story" we would have gone nowhere fast. But, his engagement was somewhat surprising to me.
Educators can often fall into the form of narration that is only retelling of what has been recently read. However, we can often find golden nuggets in unconventional sources if open to the possibility and we're willing to look silly.
I would never portray myself as a professional educator, but I did teach for a few years through Teach for America. The best advice I got in my first year was that teaching is just as much acting as it is educating. A good teacher plays a role — not always his true personality — and uses that to engage his students.
I think much professional development time would be better spent learning improv skills than pedagogy (or worse).
Patrick, there's so much goodness in this post. I just bought the book.
I'm not sure if you've seen Dr. P-Shen Loh. He's using actors to teach math online and it seems to be pretty engaging. See this: https://www.cnn.com/world/professor-po-shen-loh-actors-classrooms-spc/index.html
I've long thought the skills of storytelling, acting, and comedy are the most important skills I use to teach my kids. Nice to see someone else agreeing.
Thank you for sharing Impro.
I am not familiar with Po-Shen Loh...thanks so much for the lead!
I wasn't either, until a math professor at Montana State sent me the article. I've never met him, but I hope we can highlight more great experiments like this.
I have been reading this book based on this post. I find most of it (not all) intriguing and engaging, especially the chapters entitled spontaneity and narrative. I've been employing some of these techniques in my own home. As example, having my youngest son create a story based on questions that he is being asked after providing an initial prompt. "There is a man in a suit walking down the street." "Where is he going?" "Why is he moving so quickly?" "What is he carrying?" Had I just asked him to "tell me a story" we would have gone nowhere fast. But, his engagement was somewhat surprising to me.
Educators can often fall into the form of narration that is only retelling of what has been recently read. However, we can often find golden nuggets in unconventional sources if open to the possibility and we're willing to look silly.
The description at the end of various teachers and their presence in and out of classrooms was very instructive. What an interesting book!
I would never portray myself as a professional educator, but I did teach for a few years through Teach for America. The best advice I got in my first year was that teaching is just as much acting as it is educating. A good teacher plays a role — not always his true personality — and uses that to engage his students.
I think much professional development time would be better spent learning improv skills than pedagogy (or worse).
Totally agree. I've always thought that the best classes are like plays and the teacher should prep for them like a playwright drafting a scene.
A great analogy.