Unlock with PatreonThe Problem with CI
To view this content, you must be a member of Ben’s Patreon at $10 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to
Teaching Introverts
Share:
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn
Ben Slavic
Get The Latest Updates
Subscribe to Our Mailing List
No spam, notifications only about new products, updates.
Related Posts
CI and the Research (cont.)
To view this content, you must be a member of Ben’s Patreon at $10 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to
Research Question
To view this content, you must be a member of Ben’s Patreon at $10 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to
We Have the Research
To view this content, you must be a member of Ben’s Patreon at $10 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to
5 thoughts on “Teaching Introverts”
The Invisibles honor the introverts in the classroom. They themselves cannot even be seen!
I really feel this line from the article:
…one thing I think that educators should bear in mind: we allow adults all kinds of flexibility in terms of what kind of social life they want. Adults who have two or three friends, no one thinks twice about it. But we don’t allow children the same degree of flexibility….
I think that honouring our students in our classes as the people they are and the learners they are will reap rewards beyond what we can envision. With the Invisibles, I think we, in the World language classroom, will be the ones in schools to truly do this.
I am so happy, Dana, that you are going in just a few months to New Delhi where you will work with the very students who invented the Invisibles, those 6th graders who are now going to be 8th graders. Be sure to tell them that their ideas have been well-received by others. Their parents will want to know that as well.
Tell them about the equity piece that their invention promotes. They will be happy to know that Bob le Blob and Vampspooder and Sherman and Mint Green Tea and all the rest of the grand characters that they created that year were not just things we did that year, to be forgotten, but will live on in the forms of so many more fantastic invisible characters for a long time.
Tell them that their work counts for something and that what they created is important and that THEY are important, more important than being merely branded and labeled with a grade by an impersonal system that does not SEE their light but instead honors and respects them for who THEY are THEMSELVES as learners and bearers of infinite possibilities as learning now sheds its old skin like a snake and as we look forward now, finally, to something new, the new day that we have all been waiting for for so long, so that now as teachers our hearts will not be so heavy as they were in the past and we can be happy in our work and not feel so damn stressed out all the time.
I have had students who have a difficult time relaxing. They are shy, introverted but just want to follow the requirements of the day and do work from other classes. They are going through tough times but they never seem to come out of their shells. I never feel like forcing them to do the pony show. They just need to demonstrate understanding and try and let me know they dont get it but this last task is difficult for many people not just middle school students.
I allow a multitude of assessments to show what they do know and that they can understand and do in class. Can they sustain focus? If they are just staring off into space with a look of pain, sadness and lonliness in their eyes what can we do? Seriously? I just pass them but this year i will engage more with my students and weave in their lives into our stories. In OK, i saw how Sean uses actors, space and student jobs to interact and fold in students. Totally compelling. I also saw how other teachers bring in factoids of the students really quickly into a story. They just light up.