Oh, NO! Not Shakespeare! I hate math! Grammar? Moby Dick—call me anything but Ishmael! Ewwww—Chemistry!
Name one subject where at least one student really doesn’t want to be there.
Drew said, “I had a choice…Biology I or Band. So, I took band. At least band is easy…” Well, it isn’t. So, the choice he made was the lesser of two evils.
Do you get the recurring question, “When am I ever going to need this?” How many ways can you answer that? I can think of two:
- I don’t know, but it’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. (That’s lame isn’t it.)
- You may not need it, we’ll have to assess it as we go along.
I wanted to answer, “Why are you asking me? That’s not my problem.” I resisted. But isn’t it our problem? Actually, all we do is make the information available and understandable to our students. How they make use of it is entirely up to them.
What if what you want to teach is not just the subject matter?
What if what you have to teach is difficult and the students can’t relate to it?
What if it’s (Heaven forbid) boring?
Here’s a concept for you. Instead of teaching the material with facts, figures, graphs, and lectures, tell stories and ask questions.
“Well, SURE, if you’re teaching English Lit.” I have news for you. This process can work with ANY subject. And even then they might not be the stories you think.
What I’m going to do over the next few weeks is use stories and questions to teach subjects everyone hates.
Feel free to DM me with a class that you’d like to see done in this way using the Fegan Method of learning.
If you want more information,