What lessons have had the greatest impact on your students?

[Justin Sharpe]

One of the greatest rewards as a teacher is when a lesson has unexpected but exciting outcomes and when students really take ownership of their learning. Have you had such a moment or outcome with your students? What triggered it and how did it effect future lessons for disaster risk reduction or preparedness? Was the teaching didactic and tecaher led or more experiential/ In order to make new resources that teach effective education for DRR we need your experiences. Please share them with us...

[Tom]

When I went into the classroom to teach 16-year olds US History, my speciality quickly became the integrated use of PowerPoint and video clips in the classroom (this may be very common now, but at the time and in the place I was teaching, this was quite on the bleeding edge of instructional technique). When it came time to teach about the Cold War, it made sense to me to frame it in the context of the war it served as a substitute for, World War III. So, right after World War II was finished, I taught all about nuclear weapons and nuclear warfare and exactly how grim all that would have been, and along the way taught them a fair bit of the old Civil Defence material I received way back when I took earth science in 8th grade. This sort of practical knowledge is sadly lacking in most school curriculum.

I take the attitude that nothing communicates to youngsters as well as a few well-chosen video clips, or visiting the site of a historic event via Google Earth or NASA World Wind, or a wall-sized image courtesy of an LCD projector. I believed this to the extent where my district actually created a job for me at the district office supporting teachers in the use of such technology throughout the district. My experiences in that role lead me to believe this even more strongly.

Now, working for a US emergency management agency, I would still advocate the appropriate use of multimedia as a communications enhancer. Do what you can to get the message you have off the dead white page and get it moving and talking!