Before we started using SRS I tried to sell my students on it with a heartfelt, over-prepared 20 minute presentation on how it works and the superpowers to be gained from it. It might have been a waste of time. It might have changed someone’s life. Hard to say.
I’m less skeptical. You say that you got a few students to use Anki which, while probably not life-changing, is probably significantly life-impacting. If my tenth grade English teacher had introduced Anki to me… well, right now, I’m reteaching myself introductory biology (5 on the AP exam), introductory chemistry (5 on the AP exam) and introductory psychology (A in the college course) because I forgot the content of each of these courses because I lacked Anki. I obviously don’t know everything you do in your classroom, but it’s entirely plausible that, rather than being a waste of time, introducing your students to Anki might have been (on average) the most impactful 20 minutes of teaching you did all year; you just may not see all the benefit in your classroom.
If I were currently teaching honors students I would also be less skeptical. My district persistently pushes its honors and AP offerings in a way that leads to an evaporative cooling of work ethic in the lower classes. I think I only had a handful of students using Anki on their own because pretty much everyone with enough ambition to have been persuaded by me was in honors.
Not seeing the benefits of what I do in the classroom goes with the territory. I do plan to give the presentation again when we start back up in a few weeks.
In my high school career, I took precisely one non-honors/AP course when alternatives were present. Recalling my classmates… yeah, I’m now as skeptical as you are.
(I had successfully repressed those memories until now. Thanks so much for the reminder ;)
Any chance your success might influence your colleagues?
There is talk of me giving some training on it, yes.
Teachers are so different from each other, though, and we easily become set in our ways. I’ll count myself lucky for getting even a few to try it, and some of those may be doomed to fail because of their very different styles.
That said, the foreign language department, at least, should have a way easier time capitalizing on SRS than I did. I’ll try to give them some extra attention.
When I was in school and I thought I needed a memorizing tool I was ignorant and went for Phase6. If a teacher would have recommended Anki to me, I would have used Anki.
I’m less skeptical. You say that you got a few students to use Anki which, while probably not life-changing, is probably significantly life-impacting. If my tenth grade English teacher had introduced Anki to me… well, right now, I’m reteaching myself introductory biology (5 on the AP exam), introductory chemistry (5 on the AP exam) and introductory psychology (A in the college course) because I forgot the content of each of these courses because I lacked Anki. I obviously don’t know everything you do in your classroom, but it’s entirely plausible that, rather than being a waste of time, introducing your students to Anki might have been (on average) the most impactful 20 minutes of teaching you did all year; you just may not see all the benefit in your classroom.
If I were currently teaching honors students I would also be less skeptical. My district persistently pushes its honors and AP offerings in a way that leads to an evaporative cooling of work ethic in the lower classes. I think I only had a handful of students using Anki on their own because pretty much everyone with enough ambition to have been persuaded by me was in honors.
Not seeing the benefits of what I do in the classroom goes with the territory. I do plan to give the presentation again when we start back up in a few weeks.
In my high school career, I took precisely one non-honors/AP course when alternatives were present. Recalling my classmates… yeah, I’m now as skeptical as you are.
(I had successfully repressed those memories until now. Thanks so much for the reminder ;)
Any chance your success might influence your colleagues?
There is talk of me giving some training on it, yes.
Teachers are so different from each other, though, and we easily become set in our ways. I’ll count myself lucky for getting even a few to try it, and some of those may be doomed to fail because of their very different styles.
That said, the foreign language department, at least, should have a way easier time capitalizing on SRS than I did. I’ll try to give them some extra attention.
When I was in school and I thought I needed a memorizing tool I was ignorant and went for Phase6. If a teacher would have recommended Anki to me, I would have used Anki.