Teaching Style

Add variety to a class period and have fun

Considerations on developing teacher style

The "ready, fire, aim" method of teaching

Zen and the art of teaching

Teacher "show and tell" items

Teaching during the information tsunami

Teaching in Arizona, 1912

What do you make?

Ready…aim…fire sure sounds like the proper order for those three words. But I'd like to make a case for another approach to educational planning:

READY, FIRE, AIM.

Ready, aim, fire suggests that when planning for teaching, you first prepare the situation and setting (to whom am I going to be teaching what), then create your goals (aka educational objectives), and finally choose the methods and tools needed to meet those goals. It's sound, it's conservative, and it's commonly and often effectively used. And probably it should be used some, perhaps much of the time.

But…in an age of fast technological advance…once in a while…just once in a while…it makes sense to consider ready, fire, aim. The presumption is that as a professional educator you're always ready to teach. Sometimes, however, something comes along that is so exciting, so much fun, or so compelling that it would be great to use it in your work as a teacher, even though it doesn't fit the pre-planned methods. What I'm suggesting is that there are things so compelling that you must use them as teaching tools even if at first glance they don't seem to fit what you're teaching. You're ready. You find something compelling. Now it's time to use it to help teach.

OK, OK, I know. That's the wrong way. You’re supposed to know your goals and plan techniques and methods ahead of time to meet those goals. And I agree with that. Careful planning is always valid in the educational environment. But once in a while… Look, here are a few personal examples.

Recently, I came across a program which simulated retrieval of the Wake Shield experiment aboard space shuttle mission STS-80. The graphics were compelling and the simulation was amazingly realistic. I really wanted to share this program with students. I'm currently teaching computer science, however, and the curriculum is well planned and tried and tested and true. But…the Wake Shield experiment is intended to grow pure crystals for the creation of semiconductors used in computer chips. The connection between this program and what I was teaching was not direct, however, it did make these connections:

1. Semiconductors are used in computers. What are semiconductors?
2. Purity of the semiconducting material is important to the efficiency of computers.
3. A sophisticated computer program guides the real space shuttle in retrieving the Wake Shield.

I had my connections and enough justification for using it in class. I had something exciting to fire and found something valid to shoot at, educationally speaking.

Another example? Recently, a colleague of mine, Mr. Judson Elliott, discovered a type of program called "Web Whacker." Although "Web Whacker" is an unusual name, these types of programs are useful as they will go out and download entire web sites and domains and store them on your hard disk while retaining all graphics and all links. Mr. Elliott added use of this tool to his work with teachers using the web because the program can be used to save sites and links on a hard disk ahead of time and avoid possible problems with slow connections, servers which are down, and any of the hundreds of other problems. Although it required him to modify and rethink how he works with teachers – in the middle of his work with those teachers – he had found something great to fire.

What did we gain by using Ready, Fire, Aim? The following:

1. The use of something we were enthusiastic about. And we knew our enthusiasm would transfer to our students.
2. We made use of up to the minute technology.
3. We used teaching tools of a dramatic and exciting nature.
4. We enjoyed using the new-found teaching tool.
5. We remembered that the teaching process requires refreshment. As Jud Elliott says, "ready, fire, aim deploys the compelling while it is still compelling, at least for the teacher, thus capturing (releasing) a fresh dose of enthusiasm."

We both swear that you could teach many courses by just looking for the new dramatic things which fire and then aiming them at what you’re teaching: Ready, Fire, Aim. We don't recommend it as a steady diet…we just know that sometimes…sometimes…Ready, Fire, Aim can be an extremely valid educational method. If you find some program or project of interest to you, maybe you can improve your teaching by using it with the ready, fire aim, method.