Debriefing a quote from Bobbock

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”- Franklin Bobbock.

Bobbock’s quote was a very personal quote to my educational persona. The quote deepens our thoughts about learning and how learning differently affects how we truly interpret it. It starts with, “Tell me and I forget”. The starting point of any failed learning experience starts with “telling” facts, points or anything really. The most popular way to take that in is out one ear and in another. The second point, “teach me and I may remember”… this part speaks to the teachers whom click a slide on a slideshow and expect the children to learn without any help or involvement. As well, this refers to the teacher who is not actively checking in on their students and making sure they do indeed understand. The last portion of the quote, “…involve me and I learn.” This part hits me hard as a future educator and as a student. As a future teacher, I want to be that involved teacher that picks up the hard workers and the ones whom are struggling. I want to be the teacher who is always there for extra help and wants the students to become amazing at the content. As a student,  I want to be able to understand the content the best I can with the five courses I am taking and I want the professor or teaching to want the students to learn. This is deal breaker for myself as a student. The professors in education are so wonderful for breaks, amazing lectures, and more hands on learning to make it fun. When a teacher decides not to keep the students in the learning, it is hard for the students to understand and therefore it’s not possible in education. When the teacher wants to teach and show you the actual content and involve you, as Bobbock says, it truly gives you the joy and gives you more of an opportunity to learn.

I relate this to my own learning because there’s always teachers or professors because it is frustrating wanting to learn but having no guidance to help you do so. Or even if you are not passionate about the subject area, and have no help to succumb to the difficulties. The curriculum obviously has a lot to do with the choices teachers and professors make. But we can do better, future and present teachers, we can make a change and want to make hands on learning a new way of learning. The worst way to learn is to take notes from a slide and the teacher sitting there not even standing up. The right direction is like the lecture. Ten minutes of content, break and deconstruction process with a partner. It breaks up learning, the students do not get bored, it’s something different, and most importantly, it isn’t so hard to pay attention in a long class.