Saturday 8 September 2007

Handouts fever

If you hand out materials for the class to work with, do you hand them out just when they need to focus on them? Do you remove them as soon as they stop being useful for your teaching purposes?
Tough questions for tough teachers.
I always hand materials out when I begin with the class so my students get lost in it and don't pay much attention to me. Another problem!!! When teaching children I have already worked out this problem, but when teaching to my classmates, I haven't. It seems that my brain divides the two types of teaching and thinks that my colleagues are not going to get involved in it until I say so... but that is not the case. So, what I have been faced AGAIN with is this anxiety for delivering my handouts as soon as possible, as if they were burning and I had to get rid of them.
Please, could you help me out. I know there are no many options, that I should wait, but maybe you have other ideas you would like to share.
Hope to hear from you soon, 00
Lore

3 comments:

Gladys Baya said...

One option that's worked for me(when working with adults): hand them out as I start thinking about them, but face down, and ask the class not to look at them yet... Better, leave them face up on my desk (then I don't feel them burning in my hand, and am not afraid of losing them, or worried about forgetting to hand them out!).

Once (a long time ago!) I made a little kid cry because I handed out five pages together... That taught me my lesson the tough way!

Love,
Gladys

Maria Lorena Recio said...

Ha! ha! ha! so you made a kid cry... well that thought me a lesson too.
It's a good idea to hand the handouts out and face them down. Maybe to whet the student's appetite and have them hooked by the presentation until the very moment handouts are needed.
Thanx,
Lore

Gladys Baya said...

Mmm... I woudn't go for that one, if you ask me! If I were the learner, 90% of my "energy" would be focussed on trying to guess what the handout might have...
But that's me, I know!
Love,
Gladys