In my opinion, I just love Tony's blogging style. Why you may ask? It's because of his visuals. His visuals are a great way to emphasize on his key words and phrases. Instead of bolding or italicizing his key words, he uses pictures to help aid his ideas. Also, the visuals get my attention really quickly, it gets me intrigued to what he wants to say. For example, if you see a post with just plain words in it, you get the impression that the may or may not be good, but it will definitely be boring. But if you see a post with visuals, you automatically get the impression that the post has something interesting in it. In a nutshell, his visuals are a great aid to make his posts more interesting and fun to read.
Not only are his visuals great, but also his points about motivation. I completely agree with Tony about motivation. Teachers have to learn to connect with their students, find out what triggers that spark of motivation in the student. This is quite tricky for the teacher, due to the fact that every student is unique in their own ways, and have their own ways of triggering their motivation. Which is why I agree with Tony's points, you have to let the students have options. You shouldn't always be strict and restrain what you want to see from the student, but you should give options for the student, to pick what the student prefers. When a student picks what he wants to do, it gives him/her motivation to do it. Once you are able to motivate all the students, I guarantee, you will so a drastic improvement in the student's learning.
In a short summary, I couldn't agree with Tony more, and his visuals are great. It emphasizes things in a more unique way, and it's fun. And his point are actually relatable to some people (Ex. Teachers, staff, etc ..) Also, I agree that the student should be learning out of joy, from their choice, not always restrained to what the teachers want. If you don't achieve this, the student will get bored, and get sloppy and/or lazy
Hi John,
ReplyDeleteThx for doing this - know how busy you all are getting ready for your Summer Break ;-)
I see you are a fan of "visual literacy" - we old folk just love coming up with big words to describe something that is quite simple, don't we? Yesterday, I did a new blog post:
http://allthingslearning.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/to-thunk-or-not-to-thunk/
...titled "To THUNK or not to THUNK"! I got 3 mails telling me off for using a "silly" word ;-)
Never mind. I like that you enjoy the visuals - and I find that kids and younger adults say things things far more than "old farts" (sorry, Ms Lees). Why do you think this is, John? What is it about younger people that has led them to "evolve" in this way?
A better question might be: AND, what are the implications of this for TEACHers in High Schools? Yes, I know this may make your head go "ouch" (did you read the last post?)...but it's an important question when we think about motivation.
I know the end of the years is nigh...but...if you have some time, why don't you pop into my blog this time...and leave me a comment with your thunks on those questions.
We'd love to hear from you ;-)
Take care,
T..