No More Clouds

The practice of using new strategies and explaining things in multiple ways was central to this chapter. Comp Tale 45 meant the most to me in this chapter because it supported my thinking that sometimes teaching requires abstract methods. The author calls her practices of explaining prepositions via the "cloud method" a response to "pseudo-academic mumbo jumbo."

Sometimes I feel like my teaching style might be seen as less serious because I use different comparisons and humor, rather than highfalutin theory. Jennie did something brilliant in using a second grade method that she had learned to explain some of the revision process to her student. She didn't have to tell him it was a second grade lesson; she just had to find the best way of explaining something.

I get bogged down with the arguments and theories surrounded by pedagogy because in reality, there is not ONE right way to teach or explain something.  So often, professors and other educators feel they need to prove their intelligence by how much theory they use. In reality, the goal should be keeping the brains of their students cloud-free.