Language. The very word makes me swoon!
I have a deep-seated love for language and it has been a passion of mine ever since I was young. I’ll blame my wordsmith mother who has shared the same passion in her life. I could go on and on about semiotics, facts, representations, carriers . . . but I’ll stick to the point: I think I love language because our Lord clearly loves it, too. He chose to ‘speak’ the world into existence. Language is powerful.
This chapter of _The Seven Laws of Teaching_ might just be my favorite. And that’s because it deals with language. While it might not seem...
Read more...
I'm not sure what I was thinking the first time I had a 'real' classroom to teach during my college training, but it was a near disaster. In my mind, the students would switch on some automatic button that told them to love, admire, respect me, and participate in the lesson by the mere fact that I was the 'teacher' (for the 20 minutes I had with them, at least). Bless the teacher who was observing me . . . she went easy on me. But the kids did not. Practically none of the students were on "my team" that day, and I learned a thousand lessons in that short time.
Remembering that experience brings...
Read more...
Have you ever witnessed complete unpreparedness? Maybe you were the victim of it . . . maybe you were the one who was unprepared. Sometimes it happens out of our own control or due to lack of communication. But, regardless of the reason, we know that flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants feeling that leaves us and our audience lacking.
When it comes to teaching, unfortunately, being prepared to teach a lesson is an often overlooked importance. Considering the precious time we have with our precious audience (the students), the law I'll be discussing today from John Milton Gregory's The Seven Laws...
Read more...
I'm excited to begin a new discussion thread discussing the 'laws of teaching' as laid out in the great book, The Seven Laws of Teaching by John Milton Gregory.
What are the seven laws? They are:
The Law of the Teacher: "The teacher must know that which he should teach."
The Law of the Learner: "The learner must attend with interest to the fact or truth to be learned."
The Law of Language: "The language in teaching must be common to teacher and learner."
The Law of the Lesson: "The truth to be taught must be learned through truth already known."
The Law of the Teaching Process:...
Read more...