My Marassah Classes at Surrey Estate

My memorable classes, in which students loved their learning experience.

In my classes of learners I had :-

1) Small groups for discussion;

2) Quizzes as a competition between two teams;

Groups allowed for interleaving and quizzes allowed for both interleaving and self testing. It also allowed for learning with others.

3) Jokes in between lectures;

Jokes allowed for toggling between the focus and difuse modes of learning.

4) Physical Games and Martial Arts on Saturday Mornings;

Games were designed to physically form straight lines, circles, triangles and squares together and The Martial Ats, self defence concentrated on individual skill. This would as Dr Sejnowski says build new neurons in the hippocampus and enhance learning.

5) Outings to the beach , the mountains and forests one day in the school vacation.

Outings created Metaphor. They would remember the experience with their friends for a lifetime as a great learning experience.

The Rules in my class were:-

A) You will respect me, I will respect you and we shall respect one another.

B) You are free to stay absent, come late, leave early, lend your books out to your friends, but you are responsible for all your work, without any excuses.

Organisation and Strategy

Groups are selected by a team leader who was elected democratically. Discipline is decided democratically.

Quizzes were a group effort, like the entire group would formulate questions for the opposing group to answer.

One day if the month I would be absent, win which case the class has to show their best discipline, and be organised to prove their best behaviour and organisation. Other teachers would be surprised by this, and of course the class would be praised.

The rules made them feel free with only two boundaries, i.e. Respect and Responsibility which was the goal of learning, which would result into life-long learning opportunities.