This is an experimental lab. Here is a place where teachers can test new ideas about teaching and develop their style.
This is a low stress environment where anyone can become comfortable with the activity of teaching, where anyone can figure out the skills required to teach groups. Once a person develops their method, they are expected to leave the space with the confidence to forge their own path in the professional world.
Teachers might propose classes where the students agree to be recorded, either to allow the classroom's students to review the lesson or to give the general public a glimpse of the experiment.
Teachers might also use such agreed upon video recordings as a portfolio for potential employers or future students who wish to search them out after they leave.
Teachers can develop their own methods, or they can learn from the methods of others.
Other than what is explained in our common-sense rules, there are no rules about (1) what can be taught, (2) how it can be taught, (3) who it can be taught to.
This way teachers can feel free to explore any method or subject they want to teach.
There are many schools of thought concerning teaching, and many of them are contradictory. This is a place to experiment, to see what works and what doesn't.
Teachers can also learn by participating in the classrooms of others, or can try out lesson plans shared by others.
Teachers are expected to run group classes. If occassionally only one student enrolls in the class or students who enrolled don't show up, then it is ok to teach just one student, however the goal is to learn to teach a group.
Students must adhere to the same rules of the organization as the teachers.
A student will not get thrown out of the program for being a "bad student," however a teacher might refuse to continue teaching a student, in which case the student is encouraged to find another teacher who is more able to help.
Students are expected to help their teacher in some fashion in exchange for receiving free education.
Students may be at various levels, they might not be fluent speakers of the language the class is being held in, they might not have prior knowledge of or aptitude in the subject. Teachers should be prepared to experiment with the problems and solutions of putting students of various levels together in the same class versus only allowing students of a certain level in the class.
Teachers should take into consideration the needs of second language learners whom they allow to enroll in the class. Teachers should check for comprehension and be willing to rephrase or reinforce words with non-verbal communications. For example, if they are a gym teacher, music teacher, art teacher - all they need do is demonstrate. Throw a few imperative verbs in the mix and re-enforce them with physical demonstration.
Math might be a bit more of a challenge, but a good teacher could pull it off with some diagrams or perhaps by manipulating objects.
Science much harder. But experiments would still be fun!
Teachers can develop tremendous skills by figuring out how to explain things in ways that language learners can grasp. Language learners can learn a lot by being exposed to a subject taught in their target language outside of the normal "language classroom."
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