Tactical Teaching: Part 1—What are We Teaching When and How are We Teaching It? Posted on May 5, 2014 by David RhoadsCollege and graduate school teachers have an advanced degree in a specialized field, but they may not have had a course on teaching and only limited opportunities to be teaching assistants. Historically, the assumption of most graduate programs has been that they will teach you the subject matter but it will up to you to learn how to teach it on your own….
Performance and the Classroom: Part 2—Community of Learners Posted on January 24, 2014 by David RhoadsYou never know where ideas might come from to enhance the teaching-learning experience—a choir concert, a kindergarten teacher sharing her philosophy of child development, a grade school instructor excited about a new way to teach math, a middle school tutor for special education, a CEO talking about new structures of management….
Performance and the Classroom: Part 1—My First (Misconceived) Effort Posted on December 24, 2013 by David RhoadsI got the idea to incorporate performance into the classroom from the choir director at Carthage College. I went to the annual concert of the choir, a magnificent Christmas concert held each year in December. The concert was repeated several times on the weekend and drew thousands of people from the college and from the area. As always, I was awed by the quality of the student performances….
Posing Questions—Part III: Nourishing Great Questions Posted on November 8, 2013 by David RhoadsHow can we create a hospitable atmosphere in which question-asking is an integral and valued part of the classroom experience for students and teachers alike? Maybe we need to be absolutely clear that we actually, really, honestly do want questions! To try and generate an atmosphere hospitable for questions, I have sometimes said, “You may have had a bad experience in the past asking questions in class. But I want you to know I welcome them. I know you may feel they expose what you do not know. But that is the whole point of learning. . . .
Posing Questions—Part II: Teaching Curiousity Posted on October 28, 2013 by David RhoadsPerhaps curiosity is a character trait that cannot be taught. But maybe it can be picked up by example or contagion or osmosis. You see someone who is fascinated with things and loves to investigate them, and you are just drawn to imitate that person….