Educational Compass for Teaching

When I first started teaching at colleges, the hardest part for me was the Syllabus.  I was supposed to define what I was going to teach, and cover, to a certain level of granularity.  This is typically a problem for me, because I don't teach the class, I let the students decide the Curriculum.

I don't read from manuals, prepare slide shows, or have a check list of every facet I speak about.  Each morning, I create a list of keywords I'm going to cover for that day.  as I go through the class, I take a look back at that to make sure I'm getting everything.

I make up the list in the morning, because I don't know what I'm going to do with the class.  I have a vague idea of the direction, but I ask the class what they want to do (within boundaries).  I need to make sure several key topics are covered, but the farther into the class, the less direction I provide, and the more I use the students as a compass, guiding me to what to teach.

A downside I face, as others might see it, is that I didn't have the code prepared that I use as examples.  That means I could be showing them an error.  OH NO!!!  AN ERROR!???  How are students going to learn that mistakes are ok, and that we can learn from them, if the teachers hide from it themselves.  I embrace the mistakes, and use them as learning exercises for the class.

In programming in particular, when a mistake happens in the code, the environment gives you clues as to what went wrong.  That is one of the biggest learning tools.  Especially these days, when it says things like, "You can't use a number here, try using a true or false"  (close enough)  It works great.

I will admit that you really have to know what your doing to teach like this, but if your going to teach it, it only makes sense that you know it that well.  You should be able to write a small book on it if need be.

My students tend to have a lot of fun, enjoy them selves, and learn a lot in the process.  I recommend any other teacher try to look for ways to allow mistakes to show up, and make it work for your classes.  I recommend, if your comfortable with it, to try teaching with nothing more than a brief list of keywords to target, and teach according to what the students point towards the most.