I agree with you about the “Forget about learning” thing, but I thought since it was such a long article I needed to keep the headings kind of shocking, to keep the readers going.

I agree with you about the “Forget about learning” thing, but I thought since it was such a long article I needed to keep the headings kind of shocking, to keep the readers going.

I particularly agree with the “forget about learning” part, but would have put it slightly differently! Yes, emphasise the doing part of things but keep it focused – try and make it active learning, so that the kids are having so much fun doing stuff that they do not realise that they are learning things! The new teacher really gets an opportunity to discover the different characters in their class in this way!

Also, when I start a new tutor group, like everyone else I am duty bound to go over the rules and regulations. So this is what I do – I ask the students themselves to create the list of rules, with the proviso that this is what they must stick to throughout the year. Put them in small groups and ask them to come up with a few rules for each group that they then report back to the class. They then get to discuss the pros and cons of each rule and decide which to keep and which to discard. With some clever footwork you can cover all of the institution’s rules but the kids think that they are making them up. I’m not sure whether you would call it democracy in action or benign dictatorship! Strangely, the kids often create a set of rules which is in many ways more punitive than the institution;s own. I then ask one of the kids to word process the set of rules and have it laminated – then it gets pinned up on a wall. That way they are constantly reminded of the rules that they themselves have put in place – and can be reminded of this when they err from the path of good behavior!

Anyway, enough of me going on. Thanks again for a well thought out and helpful article!