Ever sit through a sales pitch after you've bought the product? No, pretty stupid, huh? Well, that's what I got to do today during our teacher institute day.
The district wants us to embrace powerful teaching methods. Now, who wouldn't embrace that? The district, myself included, for the past two years has been working with the BERC group that helps us realize how to work on more actively engaging our students than stand there and teach to them like rocks. Wonderful! That sounds like the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything!
However, if you read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as I did back in eighth grade, you find that the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything is....42. Bewildered, you then realize that you then have to find out exactly what the question is.
So, they tell us that workshops and lectures don't work. How do they tell us that? By doing a lecture followed by a brief workshop. They show the statistic that workshops only impact student achievement 5%. How did they show us this? By doing our little 3 1/2 hour workshop today.
I want to do more of this. I love the ideals behind the protocol (that's me, a protocol droid) that I have been actively making sure elements of it are in my daily lessons. I structure days to make sure it is relevant, rigorours, and engaging. So why did I have to sit through another 3 1/2 hour mandatory workshop for this?? Frustrating.
I have more questions about this method but mostly they focus on high-end learners and motivated students versus unmotivated students.
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