The topic of my "lecture" this afternoon in my DI course was assessment. At one point, I asked them to consider if it was "fair" to
I love it when I can debunk the mythology of teaching with my student teachers!
The topic of my "lecture" this afternoon in my DI course was assessment. At one point, I asked them to consider if it was "fair" to
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Not sure if this is a pilot thing, or a man thing, or what, but I must say I do enjoy the company of my GS colleagues -- three months after our "graduation", we still keep
"What is the single most important factor in classroom learning?"
I love this question! It really speaks to our desire to find the "magic bullet", the "one answer" that is going to miraculously make all our students learn everything they possibly can! Interestingly, this very question is at the core of a number of studies completed by various researchers in the field of education. And, over and over again, these researchers found that the single most important school-related factor influencing student achievement is in fact "How to not get nervous when teaching a class?"
A healthy dose of nervousness can heighten adrenaline and increase positive challenge. Too much nervousness, of course, also increases threat, which -- as you may recall -- causes the brain to downshift, which is not useful to you as a teacher/presenter/facilitator. As such, it is ciritcal to find a healthy balance. First of all, consider why you are nervous. Are you worried about failure? Of what? not enough knowledge? (Don't worry, if you have your instructor rating, you will Well, it took three different emails to an assortment of pilots, but I finally figured it out. And in the end, it was the least experienced among us who showed me the way! (More on that later.)
So, a crab is when the aircraft is headed one way, but is tracking or moving Interviewing applicants to the Dept of Education always yields some interesting insights. Today's batch included a young lady who talked about her experience as a snowboarding and skiing instructor. It made me think of Ground School vs. Flight Instruction.
The applicant articulated the challenge of teaching a group ski class as opposed to teaching a private lesson. In the latter, she noted, her main objective was to discover where the student was in terms of skill and understanding, and then move that student forward to the next level. The group class, on the other hand, presented the interesting challenge of diversity in skills, abilities and learning styles. Whereas the individual student can easily be accommodated in the one:one setting, the large group forces the teacher to become creative in her use of instructional strategies. In the same way, a Flight Instructor quickly and easily meets the needs of her individual students, whereas a Ground School Teacher must assess the divergent needs of a group of learners, and differentiate her approach to the topic(s) accordingly. No easy challenge, this teaching thing! "What is the best way to help students store maximum information?" (Also, "How to make them store the most info possible in their minds?")
This question makes me laugh because it illustrates that Ground School teachers struggle with the same major issues all teachers struggle with: Too much curriculum, and not enough time! :) I think the first thing you have to ask yourself is this: Is my goal to simply "cover Had dinner tonight with the program coordinator at the school in Honduras where I am facilitating some workshops for teachers next month.
As we were sitting around the table hammering out the details of the three days of learning while down there, and how we could make it a meaningful experience for the boys, too, who are joining me on this short term missions trip, it suddently hit me that this would be my first commercial flight since learning to fly!!! All of a sudden, getting on a plane has new meaning for me, and I am so excited about it. :) Honduras -- here we come! It feels great to celebrate the successes of my fellow student pilots from GS last fall -- one of them soloed last month, and Randy, below, flew his first solo circuit last week; lucky me, I got to congratulate him as I was just coming back from a lesson myself that morning!
"Where Do I Find a Mentor?" (and a closely related one, "How can you say a Person with 10 000 hours has better experience than someone with 5000 hours?")
The research shows that a key ingredient in professional growth is the ongoing coaching and job-embedded support of a mentor. But what constitutes a "good" mentor, and where do you find one, as a pilot/FI? I had an interesting conversation with an FI-in-training after the PD session who was very concerned with what constitutes mentorship material. Specifically, he wanted to know what the "right" number of hours was for someone to be considered an appropriate mentor, and whether someone with fewer hours but broader experience could in fact fill the role. Vygotsky, in his work on moving learners forward through the "zone of proximal development", writes of the "More Knowledgeable Other", or MKO, as the person best eqipped to move the learner along. The MKO, he says, need not be |
Welcome to Vera's Flight Brain...Here I will attempt -- hopefully not in vain -- to share my connections to previous knowledge. Or I might share a few random thoughts loosely connected to flying, too, as well as any useful resources I may stumble across in my studies.
AuthorVera C. Teschow is a certified teacher and mother of twin boys Alex and Simon. In addition to documenting her flying lessons, she also blogs about babies, teaching and life in general. Categories
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September 2013
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