These exercises are meant for those teachers, who can humbly admit that there is always room for improvement. This is an attempt to provide additional teaching skills. These skills are not taught at teacher training institutions, but they form the basis of what I call: THE SECRET TO EXTRA-ORDINARY TEACHING. This is not just a mere theory. A theory can prove itself to be useless, if put into practice. This is a feedback, born out of real classroom experience and any teacher willing to try will begin to notice changes in her/his lessons. For new readers, I invite you to Google the previous articles.
The previous article revealed to us how the fear of failing blocks the mind’s ability to think straight. Fear has but one purpose: to protect our lives by either running away from danger or fighting it. When my life is in danger, I need to react instantly and if I hesitate to act, my life will end right there. Learners approach the exam paper with fear and therefore, the mind says “My life is in danger! I must either fight (the exam paper!) or run away (from the exam paper!)” Dear teacher, please remind your learners that the exam paper is not a lion. There is no need to fear it. All that is needed is to stay calm and the previous article explained how learners can calm themselves down, whenever they are about to panic.
Today’s article wants to take a closer look at your natural memory and how it can help learners during exams. When I was teacher, I had a colleague who experienced something interesting when writing exams. He came to the point where he noticed that his time was almost up. He closed his eyes and suddenly, he was able to see the entire module in his mind’s eye. An elderly woman told me a similar story. She claimed that when she was in school, she had the ability to remember the content of her textbooks and she used her memory to pass her exams. I could list a dozen more examples, but the point is that there is something about our memory, that most people are not aware of. You, dear reader, might be one of the few individuals who have this ability, too. It sounds amazing, right? What if I told you that there is nothing amazing about that ability? What if I told you that we all have this ability, to a certain extent? Fellow teachers, give the following exercise to your Grade 10 and 12 learners.
Exercise
Ask your learners, if they can remember their favourite movie. Ask them to tell you about the movie. You will notice that they can give you detailed account of the entire movie. Now, stop them and tell them: you are able to remember something that you saw a long time ago. It is natural to remember what you saw and thought about. Now, close your eyes and see your summary notes (in your mind’s eye). Give them a moment and then ask them to read from memory, what they see. The chances are that they will remember the entire summary and textbook. They were just not aware of it. Those that have ears will hear this. Good luck to all Grade 10 and 12 for the exams. Stay calm and trust your memory.
*Shapumba ya Shapumba is the founder of Natural Learning Education Consultancy. He teaches HOW TO OBTAIN A+ IN ANY SUBJECT (students) and THE SECRET TO EXTRAORDINARY TEACHING (teachers) for booking: shapumbashapumba@yahoo.com or 0812786925