So often teachers get caught up in teaching everything that is on their long term and short term plans to their students each day. Teachers love to make 'to do' lists manually and mentally each day and place a neat check beside each item once complete...check! There is personal satisfaction at the end of the day if you have followed and completed everything on your daily lesson plan. I for one, have fallen victim to checking things off each day over the course of my career. At times I felt like yes, I have completed everything on the list yet why am I feeling so exhausted at the end of each school day? Why am I frowning instead of smiling? Have I forgotten the most important element in my teaching? Did I remember do have fun with my students and allow the learning to be enjoyable for all instead of task driven?
After 23 years as an educator in elementary schools across Canada, I have made it my mission as owner and teacher of my own tutoring company to have fun with my students. I believe that if a child is engaged in a lesson and perhaps is laughing during a fun, hands-on activity in language or math, then we are having success. At the end of the day what matters to me the most is that each student is learning and enjoying themselves at the same time as they start to see improvement in their math or language skills. As American author Will Thomas once said, "There is no FEAR when you are having fun!" I believe in that quote wholeheartedly and see time and time again how my students stop seeing our learning activities as work and start to see them as fun activities that give them confidence in their reading or math skills. Have a look at these following two videos from recent lessons on strengthening a students' vocabulary:
Please fill free to leave me a comment if you like what you see! Would love to hear your thoughts on the power of having fun with students while learning at the same time.
:
Commentaires