Thursday, March 24, 2016

Teaching Tip #131



Teacherscribe’s Teaching Tip #131

Another great podcast I came across was from Dale Partridge.  Again, he is from the world of business, but his ideas on quality apply just as well to teaching.

One of my favorite things that Partridge focuses on is quality.

And we all want quality - whether it’s in our products (think Craftsman tools, Tiffany jewelry, or apple computers) or customer service (think Menards, Chick Fil A, Carmax, or Hardware Hank).

Partridge looks at the four aspects of quality -

2.  The quality of the experience.  Again, this is one reason I loathe Wal-Mart and envy the folks who have never set foot in that wretched place.  I have never once had a remarkable experience at Wal-Mart.  Not true, though, for TRF Paint and Glass or Hardware Hank or Lowe’s or (in my younger days) The Buckle.  There have been websites I’ve visited that are just so much fun to surf that I become addicted.  Here are a few - Smithsonian, Pinterest, and ThinkGeek.

So how does this apply to teachers?

This one is simple.  What kind of experience do we wow our kids with?  Now, I understand, not everything we teach (even in English) is going to be fun and engaging.  But as I see it, that’s our job.  How can we make the most boring content interesting and engaging?

If you think there is something that just can’t be made interesting or engaging, then at least break it up into small pieces so you won’t bore your kids to death.

Just think of those wretched safety training videos we have to watch at the beginning of each year.  Don’t lie.  You hate them.  You probably don’t even really watch them.  You either click through them or put them on and then go do something else.  You want to get through it as quickly as possible without suffering through it and then just score well enough on the final quiz to pass.

Sound familiar?

That’s how every student views our classes.

Make the experience a great one.  That’s what you would want if you were in your students’ shoes.

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