I like fun.
Really, who doesn’t like fun?
We do a lot of fun activities in my classroom. Last week, we went to an observatory after
Fun, right?
Right - but let’s not confuse the classroom with Disney World.
We do a lot of stuff that isn’t so much fun, too. That’s why we call it work. It’s hard. It’s challenging. It makes the students think. And sometimes it’s just plain boring.
The thing students don’t understand is that we’re teaching them a lot more than the stuff in the books.
Yes, I teach about fractions, exponents, atoms, the Earth’s mantle and hundreds of other topics. I’m also teaching the students how to do an assignment that they don’t want to do because it’s boring or it’s hard or they’re not 100% sure they understand it yet.
Learning how to learn is probably the most important thing I can teach students at this level. In a few short years, they’ll be off to college where no one will harass them for missing work, or remind them to study for a quiz, or even notice if they attend class.
They’re gonna need to fend for themselves and part of that is knowing how to put their heads down and plow through the boring stuff.
No comments:
Post a Comment