Slowly turning my mental gears

At the end of the month my work contract at a university research institute runs out. It’s been a good project (here) to work on. One of those projects where I am not so sure who learned the most, the teachers and students we worked with, or me. Sometimes I suspect the later.

The work has consisted of creating cross-disciplinary, multimedia learning projects in all school grades (grades 1-13). Usually, I’d find a teacher or an interested teacher would hear of the project and we’d get together and discuss her or his class’ curriculum. The teachers would explain how they usually teach the subject at hand and what the students needed to know at the end of the term. I would try to come up with a new approach and useful technology to help the students do the work, since they are the persons having to learn.

For the most part, in Germany, the prevalent form of instruction is still the traditional frontal instruction form. Teachers stand next to the blackboards and yell above the dim of the non-attentive students’ heads. It is frightening to witness. I really do not know how the teachers manage to put up with this sort of behaviour.

The lack of discipline and respectful behaviour in the classroom is hard for me to comprehend. I attended grade school when the principal still imposed the strap, went to a strict Anglo-Saxon high school, and was instructed by Russian ballet teachers. I am not saying any of these systems were good, but certainly different than the school system my children are attending. I don’t quite know what I would do with a classroom full of unruly children, or face-to-face with a belligerent bully.

Yet, I might just learn what this is like because I’m thinking of applying for a job as a teacher (English as a second language and media) when my present position finishes. I’m doing this in hope of helping the students to learn how to learn. That is one of my few abilities: finding the motivation and the methodology to learn new things. I don’t necessarily learn well or easily, but I do like to learn. I do like to keep those mental gears turning.