Last week I read a book titled The Power of a Teacher, By Dr. Adam L. Saenz. It was an extremely engaging read, and I highly recommend it to all young teachers. There are some parts in it that may be impertinent to our current situation as student-teachers, but there are insights to be gained. Dr. Saenz message is clear from the first page, they WHY of teaching comes before the WHAT and the HOW, and we must never forget that why even when the job (or in our case, the studying and the planning and the failings) may frustrate us beyond belief. After reading, I constantly am alert to the choices I make as an educator, as they all should in some way or another be to the benefit of my students.
In connecting our class with my reading, there is a time and a place for Lecturing, and it will be up to us to DECIDE if a lecture class for the days objectives is the best and easiest way for students to meet those objectives. Also, when lecturing, be fair to the students, and don't waste there time. Lecturing can easily become boring for the students, and you will have wasted a whole night of planning, as well as a days worth of class time if the lesson is ineffective from monotonous drawl and factual ramblings. I'm glad we were able to learn about this method of teaching, as it is a major tool in our teaching arsenal.
I have to admit, I agree when you say it is a waste of people's time. If a lecture is not well designed, students will lose focus and won't learn anything from it. There is a time and place for lectures, but it should not be the sole foundation of our instruction. We have more tools than that to rely on lecture as our primary method of instruction and students have more tools to use to learn.
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