Teaching Mindfully

One of the things that I often think about as I'm going through the motion of the PGCE course is how I will incorporate new and creative ways into my lessons in order to not just carry over the information to my learners but to be innovative in such a way that would literally make learning more fun for them instead of just creating the illusion that learning is fun.

It is so easy to get caught up, as teacher, to the point of where you often forget that all the responsibility and initiative does not always necessarily need to come from you. A key aspect that can be used as a way of creating a fun environment for the learners are the learners themselves. After all, the lessons are for the learners and so it would then be important that their input be taken into consideration as to what they would like and would not like. By incorporating learners input into the lesson you show a level of trust in your learners and this will then give them space to express their needs and wants freely without feeling as though the teacher is the only one who can and will be in control.

In addition, having the learners take control in terms of the structure of the classroom can also be another good way of meaningfully getting learners involved in making the classroom a creative environment for the learners. In other words, having learners decide on what they would like to be displayed in the class and the kinds of rules that they would like implemented etc. As a teacher, you also have to know and make use of all the resources that is readily available to you as a means of helping to get the learners to creatively engage in the class as well as making the resources available to learners too.

Being creative doesn’t always require you to do the most amazing things that are completely out of this world because sometimes it is exactly those things that completely distract learners from the learning process. All that is necessary is thinking just a little further out of the box and having the kind of pastoral care enough to take your learners into consideration more than anything else. Basically as clichéd as it sounds at times, it really is the little things that generally make the biggest difference!