advanced

Identify and leverage your resources. A trip to see the Dutch Masters.

/ antonioyrocinante / Leave a comment
Thomas in deep thought

I write a lot about teaching hacks and do this, and do that, but at the end of the day, you can summarize my hacks and advice into one: recognize and identify your resources and then leverage them.

If you read this blog, you know I recently loved the exhibit of the Dutch Masters at the Norton Museum. The Dutch Masters beautifully portray the chiaroscuro, tenebrism, emotion, color, and realism that characterize the Baroque. Since we are currently studying the Baroque in our Advanced Spanish class, this exhibit was a perfect excursion for us to better understand this movement, period, literature, and art.

After clearing all the permissions and bureaucratic hurdles, off we went to the Norton in West Palm Beach and loved it!

Roman, a sweet retired Polish fellow, was our patient and generous docent. He was knowledgeable and understanding. The students answered all the questions Roman asked about Biblical stories, and we all enjoyed the visit.

If you have the blessing, privilege, and responsibility of being a teacher, find your resources and lean on them. You are welcome.

Teaching outside the classroom (Part 2)

/ antonioyrocinante / Leave a comment
Discussing mystical literature in Starbucks!

The first part of Teaching outside the classroom was about coaching soccer, about teaching values, and teamwork, and all those “soft” skills which the classroom is not the ideal venue for. (You can read about it here)

Basically a classroom is just a room, four walls, nowadays likely packed with technology, in which your students and you meet. It is easy, you build a building, make lots of these rooms and you have a school! But we now know that these places are not the best, and not the most conducive to learning. So whenever we can, we get out of there!

Sometimes we just step outside to the garden or the dining room, steps away from the classroom. But if the course has few students and the content for the day’s class is propitious, we go to our local coffee shop (which unfortunately in our case is a Starbucks, but hey even that is better than the sterile walls of a classroom).

Outside the classroom the students seem to think “better,” more fluidly, they engage differently with the subject. I do not have the science to prove it, but those classes seem more enriching for the students.

We recently had a lesson on the great mystic Santa Teresa de Jesús and her poetry. This lesson, with only four students in the class (Advanced Spanish Language and Culture) was worth taking to the coffee shop. It worked out great, so much so that a week later I took my other section!

So if you have a small class and can do it, get out of the classroom! You are welcome.