Helping one person at a time

It is exciting to believe that you can influence change in some global way in the school. One great presentation or a handful of really engaging workshops, but the longer I do this the more I realize it is the one to one collaboration that really makes a difference.

The well attended workshops this year have been training sessions, where teachers were taught how to use a particular software. These workshops served their purpose, those teachers came away with a new set of skills - they got what they came for.

But even software training has changed, some people want to be feed every thing in a step by step order. Others want to play around and figure things out. Some can be given the basics and the time to play around and are fine, while others will rarely venture out of the structure of the class. I think the way teachers learn say a lot about the way they teach.

I have taught high school computer classes for eight years, and it always surprises me how we have trained students to learn in such a traditional way. Lets play around and discover how the software works, lets collaborate as a class and work together to discover what is possible in Photoshop or a similar software. While some are able to do this, at least half want to be fed the information, and actually become frustrated when all of their questions are not answered by the instructor.

Have we forgotten to teach them how to learn?