Marked Classroom Instruction

Mr. Dave Hewwitt's approach to classroom instruction is different from what I have seen in my past years- both as a tutor/cram school teacher and as a student. It is an interesting concept, though I am not sure if I'll be able to incorporate it in my own teachings. His teaching approach is quite interactive and engaging- leading to the impossibilty of being unattentive in class.

I appreciated the fact that the classroom environment he created was one that was independent and his teaching methods were decentralized. This approach would take time for the teachers inexperienced and experienced alike to cultivate- as the roles of a typical student and teacher are redefined. As students, they are no longer merely sponges, but rather math scientists. I enjoyed watching this clip as it allowed me insight to how one may approach a class in order to have students learn independently.

One key thing that I noticed and will need to work on if I wanted to use this method is having a LOT of patience. Without the patience, Mr. Hewwitt would not have been able to go from the simple basic building blocks to subtly incorporating higher learning concepts into the lessons. It was very encouraging to note however, that once the basic foundations were set in place (over repetition and drawing out the basic concept), more difficult concepts seemed to come more easily to the students.

One method of technique that I find particularly attractive is his use of incorporating the whole classroom to answer his questions. Instead of picking on ONE student, all the students have the chance to call out the answers in unison- nullifying the chance of a student feeling picked on or being ignored. This led to the classroom atmosphere to be a cooperative learning environment where students worked together as a team to strive towards the same goal instead of a competitive one where they did individual learning. I believe that by doing so, Mr. Hewwitt was successful in forwarding the progress of the students as a whole. Furthermore, this allowed the chance to have the students to self check their concepts and to make sure that they understood what was going on in class.

I believe this is a very ENGAGING and progressive method to incorporate mathematics into the classroom setting.